Houston Tour Stop

Thomas Quitzau

July 16, 2023

We can forget the long quietude of July twilight

Brief pale blue glow of late afternoon’s sky

Cradling a moon you’d find in a children’s book

Fans are all out tonight, led by a few groupie cries

Piercing, upstaging chirps of neurotic cardinals

Open an evening fit for the nocturnal kings

Warm-up bands for night hawks’ trickery before

Roadies clear the stage and the sun goes down

Now headliner bats ellipse synch between streetlights

Ultrasonically socking it to the mosquitoes

Please, God, let there be multiple encores

Shoot, where’s my lighter when I need it

Thomas Quitzau grew up in the Gulf Coast region and worked for over 30 years in Houston, Texas. A self-ascribed member of the ZenJourno School of Poetry, Tom recently relocated with his family to Long Island, New York where he teaches and writes.