New York City
New York City,
Rising hot,
Breaking sound barriers;
Offering mortal sacrifices to homeless prodigies.
The godless trot in the streets
Under the scolding Jumbotron in Times Square.
The spectaculars light the Great White Way damped
With druggies and insolent theatergoers.
The meager vendors mirror the bankers
In duplicitous longings.
The austere crowds have bills to pay and mortgages to plunder.
Everyone is sacred here: the mayor, the jewelers,
The beggars and the deliverers rushing to
Meet their clients in back corridors.
Tin Pan Alley rises in rebellion
Two blocks from Rockefeller Center.
The Rockettes score in reveled beauty that never ages.
New York is daunting and
Dangerously made for cowards and contortionists
Living in the desperate streets.
Infamy exists in exile, even in New York City style.
Time waits for no one here, sleeping and steady.
Be fooled by nothing you hear, for stranger answer
the call to be “cool” and to die young and worldly.
