Clubbing in the ICE Age

Rare aesthetic: your friend’s sweat-soaked shirt lit cigarette glowing long and red, bobbing dangerously on the dance floor, smoke rising, curling, strong enveloping haze

knowing today and yesterday and tomorrow there is tear gas on the highways in Minnesota knowing this and dancing arms raised in the strobe lights arms constrained in custody all this ignored all this far away Alligator Alcatraz in the south no A/C, sweat-soaked disappeared, or freezing in the sweep of frigid cold, arctic air mass, icy snap, ICE raid, sweep, false alarm at House of Yes, warrants only, unwarranted, joy warranted in these times?

Thinking of the Kit Kat Club, thinking of Berlin, Weimar and dancing late hours, all hours, woman in a white silk corset, crystal design of a rose, her sunglasses, her hands in the shape of a dove’s wings rising, blunt bob cut of perfect straight black hair, cans crushed on the floor, cans pushed to the side of the walls, swept up just before closing, man on the wall staring in a daze as the sweeper waits,

all of us dazed, those who clean up, people swept aside like debris, like trash, willingness of others to step on what lies beneath, model minority white on the dancefloor, immaculate vibe, let’s do this again, let’s all forget and do it again