NEGATIVE SPACE IN NEW YORK CITY
At the Guggenheim
they make a big deal
about the negative space
between the right arm
and the body
of Picasso’s “Woman Ironing”
Which makes sense to me
as a boy from the prairie
Since I have often been told
that there are many
beautiful buildings in this city
And yet have only seen
a few tops and sides
My gaze always glancing
off glass and stone
In its wild rush
to grasp and embrace
any small piece of sky
THOUGHTS
ON
A DEBBIE MOMENT
Debbie, a great friend of mine, died too young
and in too much pain in Houston about five
years ago now
This moment just sneaked up on me
earlier this year
Can’t help wondering how many people
are having Debbie moments now in New
York and around the world from what
happened just six weeks ago
How many people in the world in the last
five years having Debbie moments from
a hole blown in their sky
9-11 (Shadow Boxing)
Bin Laden and Bush
Projectiles can’t kill projections
Shadow boxing
9-11 (September)
New York September
Two new holes in the sky
Children ask why
9-11 (Faces)
Hiroshima, Baghdad
And a thousand other places
This time with faces
9-11 (Autumn)
New York Autumn
Trees fall with their leaves
Dark clouds rise
In the dream
I look up from my desk
into the smile on the madman’s face
in that long eternal moment
before he wrecks the plane
In the dream
I am old and frail on a mis stepped step and
I am the young and strong who catch my eye
as pushed and pushing they pass me by
and will live with it till they wake or die
In the dream
I am the man in uniform
climbing endless stairs against a human sea
only to find them endlessly
folding in on me
In the dream
I am the woman in the chair
that two men carried down the stair
gripping the wheels as I hear them say
the lady is still standing in the bay
9-11
Old movies new
Easterns and Westerns star God
Many tickets sold
9-11
New York harbor
Twin Titanics sinking
Too few lifeboats