• there is something simple
• about jerry-rigged fixes
• beat-up laptops with fading stickers taped in place
• and headphones superglued back together
• roughhewn handstitches
• on ancient jean jackets
• textbooks older than I am
• and greying brick on a white façade.

//

• something pure about scraping a fix together

//

• so much deteriorates so quickly
• even this body
• doesn’t seem built to last anymore

//

• a beatup gravel parking lot
• and string lights hung from the rafters
• tiny spaces reclaimed from the dark corners

of an artificially shiny city

• and a tin can collection
• to keep the rent paid
• on a punk rock stage
• hidden in a decaying strip mall.

//

• there is so much surplus
• gone to waste
• and we make do with the beaten-up scraps.

//

• and in a way
• that makes me smile a bit.

//

• because there’s no profit
• on keeping these spaces betwixt alive
• those hidden corners that thrive
• on donations and a lot of love

//

• the between
• exists just like me
• just like us

//

• a footnote on a city that seems older than the trees
• clarifying the heart of what matters
• which is the people
• not the profit.
• those liminal spaces
• are where the magic happens
• that rejuvenating phantasm that allows us to survive
• a little longer
• in this cold city
• that doesn’t care about me or you
• only the money.

//

• that back-alley doctor’s spirit
• that exists in those few spaces we can call our own
• roughly stitches up the wounds of the outside world
• allowing us to get by
• forced to exist in the shadows
• biding our time.

//

• for when this cold city catches flame again
• with the song of angry men,
• when that last spark of injustice
• breaks the camel’s back,
• reignites the kindling we tender in our hearts,
• and the spirits of all our fallen
• carry us into a new world

//

• that long survival
• and the small liminal spaces we curate
• and the stitches we hide in our hearts to keep us safe
• and the moments of happiness we fight so hard to protect
• and all the pain and suffering
• will pay off.

//

• it will be worth the wait.
• it will be worth the years spent patching each other up.
• it will all be worth it.

//

• in the end.