The Man In The Booth in the Midtown Tunnel.

·        As a kid I always wondered about the man in the small booth in the middle of the Midtown Tunnel; the tunnel that goes from Queens to Manhattan.

The cars stream

under a frozen

catatonic

East River.

And the man

in the booth

paces the perimeter

of his cage.

He fumes

with the fumes.

And feels

the river's pressure

above his head.

And he has

lost his face

long ago--

in a blue

uniform.

And the sun

and the fresh air,

merely a hint.

And we are

faceless and

a blur

behind thick plates

of light- bleached glass.

And we will

all remain

ignorant

of each other.

And there is

no light

at the

end of

the Midtown

Tunnel.