Aluminum badges glint on

midnight blue suits.

Traffic-teers, in white gloves,

Twirl to the tunes of pollution machines.

Sky-horses, on puppet-wires,

Bend and balance against City-winds.

Colossal cranes strain upward,

On concrete skeletons,

To kiss the morning-sky.

A storekeeper brushes away

Last night's dirt from Market Square.

Electric signs shut down.

Boats signals exchange minuets,

As bargemen prepare to channel

Steel-flowing waters

Presses turn to mate with the TV news.

A man ferries a sign

begging for a new day,

While a blind man sits and sings,

Hoping that someone will fill his plastic cup,

While idle mill-stacks dream,

and security guards

come out.

bjd