Bristles

New York bristles with towering buildings.

I choose me bristles with pride, yes, I do

Even the bristles on your chin were covered with ice.

The bristles on your paintbrush come from India, could be one of my ships that brought them.

At night they get covered in pollen, which showers down over them, and then the bristles that we saw above, they sort of wilt and allow all these midges out, covered in pollen fabulous thing.

They lay their eggs in it, thinking it's a nice bit of carrion, and not realizing that there's no food for the eggs, that the eggs are going to die, but the plant, meanwhile, has benefited, because the bristles release and the flies disappear to pollinate the next flower fantastic.

In those days, one hid much else as well grown men didn't embrace one another, unless someone had died, and not always then you shook hands or, at a ball game, thumped your friend's back and exchanged blows meant to be codes for affection once out of childhood you'd never again know the shock of your father's whiskers on your cheek, not until mores at last had evolved, and you could hug another man, then hold on for a moment, then even kiss (your fathers bristles white and stiff now).