Multo.com :: Visual Magic

City in Slumber

She takes long heavy breaths
Whistling sighs in her cavernous breast
And expels, in all seasons and hours of the night
Thick billowing puffs of warm moist air
Her heat is steady and calm
Like a lover’s whisper in my ear
The rumble of her heart at 42nd and Lex
Pumps out life through a steel network
Of rails and Els and express and local
Trembles below the thin skin of concrete
Ever hungry, her stomach grumbles with
The oars of fish and freight
And the wheels of cattle and produce
Her left hemisphere of money on Wall Street
And her right hemisphere of art on Spring
Meet in the middle of no-man’s land commerce Canal
She filters the foreign bodies in and out
At Port Authority, Kennedy and La Guardia
Her soul is in the park, on Sheep’s Meadow
Her tears are the boat pond reflecting the moon
Her smile is the Mad Hatter and Alice at 3 AM
She dreams of parks and fires and tunnels
Named after countries and presidents
Her old rainments replaced with cheerful neon
And theme park prefab beauty
Lecherous lusts dwindle as the old broad
Becomes the proper grand dame
A song for every moment, her voice is Broadway nights
And Lincoln Center galas, shiny and full as red, red wine

May 29,1998