Elaine Sexton |
Lower Manhattan Pantoum
Always a bad sign
people on the sidewalk looking up.
A crowd forms, cars slow
then stop,
people on the sidewalk looking up.
I step into the pool of them
then stop.
I gape like the others.
I step into the pool of them,
become the pool
and gape like the others.
Mothers, peddlers, suits
become the pool
of a wreck.
Mothers, peddlers, suits,
my super, my neighbors,
a wreck
unfolding, undone.
My super, my neighbors,
no one is not stunned.
Unfolding, undone,
we look at our watches,
stunned.
Someone says let’s pray.
We examine our watches.
A crowd forms. Cars stop.
Someone says let’s pray –
always a bad sign.
Elaine Sexton
Lower Manhattan Pantoum first appeared in Poetry, May 2005, Volume CLXXXVI, Number 2, and on the website Poetry Daily.
Posted on April 16, 2007 6:10 AM