the perfume of her hangs in the air   like an atmosphere   promising thunderstorms   the windows cracked letting november in   but her body beneath these blankets warms me   her hair in wet feathers   pressed to her head   the washed out splendor of   macy's day parade   glitter and tinsel   are clogging the drains   causing a runoff that's flooding the city   she gives me her red rhinestone ring   that fits only my thumb   and i wonder   was it her ex-husband's or father's or someone's   cheap souvenir   from a somewhere he took her   i decide i won't be a gift to her   so i wear it for awhile   til' it gives me a rash   i am not sentimental   toss it in the trash   cos' i don't care   if she likes me   or not   if she likes me   or not   i don't care   if she likes me   or not   she was marching in the macy's day parade   in a row of dancers decked out in the rain   women in heels executing military drills   goosestepping in lynchpin six inch stilettos   towards central park   where the mud from its meadows   runs into the gutters   all glutted   with pink ostrich feathers   the plumage that falls   from a macy's day dancer   answer me   it's raining   crowds run for cover   shoving complaining   streets full of women   that beg you to praise them all   and their lashes   and then slowly raise them   they'll stare you down   and then turn away   but when they're hunting you   can't you hear their eyes saying   do you like me   or not   hey do you like me   or not   hey do you like me or not   camera crews leave with rain on their lenses   we leave   with the first ones who befriend us   i've followed the holes your heels left in the mud   while behind us the city was starting to flutter   hair in wet feathers   blue blonde and red   the washed out splendor of macy's day parade   hair in wet feathers   pressed to her head   the washed out splendor   of the nest i made   with sheets strewn over with sequins and trash   cast off by parades that have already passed   and i am not the first   this role gets recast   the macy's day bird   calls out from her nest   do you like me   hey   do you like me   or not   hey do you like me or not   hey   do you like me