Night Surrender
by Leila Ortiz

Read the automated transcript.

All of us on a stoop.
Late, too late

to be out. We like to squat
in black and blue

night. We are owls
with pocket-knives.

Stoop summer of
Uncertainty. Colt 45

Tastes like rain
and bone. This girl Myca

left alone by parents
off vacationing. The Beastie

Boys whine, the girlie
Was def and she wanted to go,

but we stay till night
expires. Taking dares

and setting them on fire.
This couple walks by

probably coming
from a party. They laugh

at something not funny.
We must look like kids

because the man smiles
and asks if we smell pancakes,

making our anger
pop. Jonah

follows them up the block.
All I hear is the woman

Saying stop, stop.

“Night Surrender” by Leila Ortiz. Copyright © 2019 by Leila Ortiz. Used by permission of the poet.