Emissions

I’ve seen my own portrait

in filthy dollar store windows

and in the confusingly cumbersome/graceful

mien of the manatee,

but I secretly long to stretch

along the columns to some great place

and fill in the spaces where people

pass by, expecting beautiful things,

things to make you think and feel excited,

instead of feeling like

an eternal disappointment

or worse, a bothersome smog.