New Cloud

New York under New
Amsterdam cloud
salt and musty sea of mica-
crusted skyscrapers,
the city a moment of grave portent
on the ocean, crests
and briny foam frozen,
peaks
into our needling towers.

New York under New Amsterdam
cloud,
your river-valley sweetness
plunging into sudden void,
impossibly steep,
and I see into you -- palm
the full lengthiness of 34th street
with my eyes
and discover the hazy ghosts of Brooklyn
drifting,
balletic in their purgatory
east of the river,
east of Eden.

New York under
New Amsterdam cloud,
a high
and mighty wassailer,
grand
and wide-hulled as a ship, you,
cloud mountain--
nimbly surmount these rolling hills
with the same marked gallantry
that mingles with the city
lights
and which transmits
through perforated density
the soft and slanting
beams of morning.


7.20.10