Another Day, Another Night

The devil needs a zoning permit for a lease on Fifth and Grand. The wolves need overtime and more steel to meet demand. A vampire sobs into his drink, says the city blood tastes thin. I slide a card for Marla's crew, who freely sell their sins. The city hums in borrowed light, and favors don't come cheap. I'm the one who stays awake while all the monsters sleep. I'm not the law. I'm not the light. I'm the sigh that ends the fight. The receipt the rain dissolves, the lock that still turns, The keeper of the quiet, 'til another problem churns. A succubus just filed a claim for workplace heart attacks. The ghouls want better benefits for hauling refuse sacks. I count the beams in ancient walls, check chloride in the streams. And sell the ghosts on condo views and purging ancient schemes. A map of all the secret trades is tattooed in my mind. To keep the whole damn shaky frame just half a step behind. A witch is hexing conduit lines for clearer signal waves. The fae want pollen permits for the hollows and the graves. I trace a fault to rusty pipes, bearing mortal maintenance sign. And trade a future memory to shift a dead ley line. They'll never know what almost fried the grid from east to west. Just bills get paid, and threats get stayed, and I get... no damn rest. I'm not the law. I'm not the light. I'm the sigh that ends the fight. The receipt the rain dissolves, the lock that still turns, The keeper of the quiet, 'til another problem churns. The contracts stack like city blocks. The smoke curls from my lip. Every favor's just a stitch to keep the fabric from the rip. A witch's grudge, a goblin's pledge, a werewolf's pension plan. I file them all in triplicate and do the best I can. And if the seams should ever burst, they'd see the rot within. But I just add another clause, and turn the engine once again. The dawn lights up like cigarettes on all the trades we made. I post the truce the sewers and the siren signed today. My coat's a shelf for shadow-dust, my old ledger tells the tale. Of how the city didn't burn, and how the peace did not fail... today... I walk away into the rain, the only one who knows. The tunnels under concrete, and the way the current flows. The truce is signed, the peace is kept, the hidden world is fed. Another dawn finds nothing said, and no one in my bed. I walk away into the rain, the only one who knows... The rain spirals down the drainpipe, looks like that's how my life goes... I walk away into the rain, the only one who knows... The rain spirals down the drainpipe, looks like that's how my life goes...