Rain slashes my trench coat’s waxen skin,
its bellybroken tongue licking my chin.
Blue bursts of light weave through the alley,
crisscrossing murder with mundane tally.

Steel-tongued demons, hell’s orphaned hate,
slither roots through pipes, sewer grate.
Every corner holds secrets I must unlock,
man or beast beneath the city’s caulk.

State senators fall—a...