phone sex while the stratosphere falls

City alarms ring everyday at noon
[preparedness is, after all,
a state of mind]
& except for the interruption
it becomes one more noise to work around;
we raise our voices
turn up radios
or simply fall silent,
& wait it out—
these days
there are no options but to accept
with the apathetic noblesse
we use to ignore pollution
& the rising crime rates;
spinning our days in [...]