In the mind’s eye,
evoking the transparency of giants;
I walk within their shadow.
The brilliant faces
that walk, prim and resolute
through streets sheafed in hunger.
A mausoleum of drug stores,
false advertisements pushing
provocation.
Tarpaulins wrap the hot-dog carts
carts in silence.
Beneath a twilight sky hung
with brilliant neon.
Christmas lights strung
above the cobbled sidewalk.
Touching the shrill tips of memory,
the filter through which my eyelids
conjure these strange assortments:
cobalt stone, bronze, balsam,
Italian delicatessen;
earthly delights that poison!
Book-stores furnish words
through which we walk.
and a grand ol’ theatre untrue
to the drama of the pavements.
If I go back
I can almost hear the refrain of trombones
praising each passing stranger
as they stream home to their amber furnace.
