Finding Presence

Finding Presence Night sky beckoning dawn Gentle sensations Early morning walks Empty avenues Central Park breezes Village cobblestone streets Wet with glistening reflections Accompany the seeker’s every move Citified whispers Discordant choruses The street cleaner The sliding steel-front security doors Excited canines straining leashes Open casements echoing emphysema-regrets Merging with the early morning smells and start-up images City’s reality mix awakening Conscious-walking shakes loose somnolence Opening eyes to the gargoyles atop historic landmarks Their stoic residence mirrored in all-glass surroundings Urban growth towering over huddling addicts of all types Weary of sleepless nights Enjoined by occasional pouting mannequins Dressing light-starved windows Poised to portray tourist-trap knockoffs Rayon for silk Fantasy for verity Predatory “going out of business” choices ubiquitous Shut down shops—beaten Barely open shops—clinging Wanderers drifting listlessly Rising early by guilty conscience Some prodding their welfare bodies to move Others fearing unfaithful one-nighters become known Old widows lean from their tenement windowsills Having endured another sleepless night of heat Too poor to leave the city Too proud to ask of children Soon Sunrise bathes the grayness with color Subway entrances congest Yellow cabs begin cacophonous warm-ups Like an orchestra of out-of-tune instruments Their blasts are met with the inescapable “Taxi!” “Taxi!” Deli workers spread cream cheese Warm Bear Claws Brew bad coffee Wish their customers “have a good one” Keeping secure their jobs For another day Returning home Five flight walk up One’s feet beg relief from the morning roam A pull on the carton of OJ A flip-on of the two-burner The water to boil A drop into the drug-from-the-dumpster-couch Chock-Full-Of-Nuts in waiting Want ads front and center A few deep breaths Just another day Surviving the city