is the poem nonchalant enough to reference sufjan stevens :
or is he, too, passé : it's a poem in the same key
as his chicago : piped in to the auditory cortex : a private music :
that the world resounds with : the city resonates
from the inside : lights light up in unison : traffic stops

& starts : office-buildings with a swagger to their stillness :
an uncertain rhythm : plane tree leaves : cartwheel :
point over point : is the poem nonchalant enough to reference
one or other brand of cigarettes : plain packaged : poison :
with its woody tang : tang with its redolence of glamour :

pea coats we wear an inch or two shorter this year :
double breasted : with a narrower lapel : we're nonchalant
enough for that : a fastidiousness that has us rumpled :
a woodsy chic : in suede : or flannel : our verticals of texture :
of unenthusiastic cool : is the poem nonchalant enough

for derby boots : black : for kicking doors in : nonchalant
as leaves : circling in a corner : in mendes' american beauty :
a plastic bag amid them : lionising : self-important : buoyed
upon the wind : is the poem nonchalant enough for a warhol
misquotation : scribbled in the margin of a blank exam :

Thom Sullivan