Grating Ghosts

Such secrets steam up

New York’s buried history

In lock-step marching mist

How dense the tears of dying

The sweat of building

The death of long-tailed generations

Their skin of gray

Now the major residency color

Beneath the streets and sidewalks

Of this

The city that never sleeps

To walk the avenues

Streets and alleys

Of the metropolis

Is to carry with you

The odor of grating ghosts

A density of rising fog without repose

A reminder of where history

Continues to rot and renew

Erode and construct

Transport and greet you

As it continues to

Follow you

The city where looking over your shoulder

At what might be uninvited

Will always reveal

The stench of demise

A city’s inheritance

Creeping beneath the fragrance

Of wealth