Surreptitiously GRINDING on the Pool Jets at the Hermitage YMCA with Don Garner

We were stealing what was already ours

We broke in through a backdoor we had just left unlocked

We descended those steep basement steps

Decorated like a dungeon left over from last Halloween

We were scared of the stupid stuff we had hung up ourselves

We believed and/or pretended we'd offended the gods

Stealing what was already ours

Feeling ourselves for four bars

Losing our nerve when your dumb deviled father switched on the stars

Old bedsheets peel off the wall like the ghosts had gone home

Leaving us cleaning up what was all only ours

Suddenly the air was filled with a song we'd never heard before

Like flaming tongues falling slowly like snowflakes, melting on the floor

Releasing vapors of aches, speaking the secrets of the space

Guest pass at the YMCA, for the first time finding a place

That was already ours