I remember fireflies fluorescent ozone smell clouding a foot above the grass line on off on off too pleasant to be believed but now the evening's thick slanted air is hollow and frail shivering chihuahuas wedge into arm crooks taking their place cooing gazing human owners tilt lullabies at them singing along a half beat behind the Fleetwood Mac track at this wine bar playing just a little too loud and what will fill the evenings next escapism happy hours and group messages memes fractalling into memes into memes the infinite complexities of humor in late-stage capitalism while I sit alone and barside everything smells like food that hot spiced air Phoenix isn't cool they say but there's a lot to do out there I'd rather be in Phoenix than Austin but I like the aesthetics of Portland even though it was better a decade ago What is the most trending city in America? I don't know two men are talking nearby I pretend to be writing something absorbing instead of playing free stenographer to the room people used to be able to tell you immediately they say I remember Nashville yeah it was the Austin-Nashville thing all breweries and coffee shops now they ask me What is the most trending city in America? it's hard to take some things seriously even when you haven't been taking secret notes I say the insufferable it's hard because of all the variables to say like trending by what metric and for whom but I see their eyes dart to meet and then drift slowly angling their bodies back away from me and I volley Baltimore or Philidelphia giving in and they like these answers and I knew they would a whole gentrification of working-class rust belt cities is kinda happening right now they nod I nod what else is left to say we found the answer we found where the fabled trending heart of America now lives I'm not any better than these men to be clear I'm eavesdropping at a wine bar in East Hollywood embodied gentrification it meeee but I can't afford anything else and I was too __________ for my hometown lol I wish forever wanting to be special :'( slurping up other people's conversation cringe and hoping to be included biding time until I can nod and they can nod because we've found the answer to where the fireflies have all gone off