Cluttered stairways
at rush hour…
Pachinko.
The mustard jar is open.
He cannot find
the point of departure.
Shipping out,
he toyed with his papers…
A hot bath in the morning.
Grim faces.
Long lines in the sidewalk…
The end of an Empire.
Steaming
past the Verrazano….
Get milk, get cereal; a box of raisins.
Yellow mums
in a florist’s window…
I long for your laughter.
Stray light
blinks through the shutters…
Semaphore messages.
On an island.
The darkness.
A telephone is ringing.
Bridge night at the clubhouse…
One more departure
for the Ship of Fortune.
Fragments of memory.
Dead bodies and broken masonry.
An archeological example.
The temple doors
are open.
Cleaning people enter.
Pennies
on the sidewalk.
Begging.
So, he was overcome by magic.
Oh Albert,
the century will forgive you nothing. Nothing.