Manhattan Rain

A tissue box filled with orange peels
floats in a rain filled street crater

The war vet’s sign is as legible
as tear smeared mascara

“Have a nice day” bags hang in the trees,
collecting our voices as they are snatched by the winds

A woman screams at a dog
in an attempt to keep it from swallowing a condom

A millionaire fakes a phone call because reality is just too much
when nobody is buying the illusion you want to sell

Four different cars on the block are playing the same song
but each car rattles with a different buzz of distortion

A thin-faced grandmother carries a bag
of emptied bottles on her back

And I am a just another reality star
whose deadlight still burns

Dylan Angell is a North Carolinian who is currently based in Queens, New York. In 2016 he released the book, An Index of Strangers Whom I Will Never Forget A-Z, via his Basic Battles Books imprint. He has collaborated on two books with photographer Erin Taylor Kennedy; 2017’s I'll Just Keep On Dreaming And Being The Way I Am and 2018’s Beyond the Colosseum. In 2019 he released Sinking Windows, a bilingual publication that was printed in Mexico City. He has been published in Fanzine, Fluland, Parhelion, The Travelin’ Appalachians Revue and Sleaze Magazine.