TC: Sonnet ("Five A.M. on East Fourteenth...")

for Vincent








Five A.M. on East Fourteenth I’m out to eat
The holiday littered city by my feet a jewel
In the mire of the night waits for the light
Getting and spending and day’s taxi cry The playful

Waves of the East River move toward their date
With eternity down the street, the slate sky
In Tompkins Square Park prepares for the break
Through of lean horses of morning I

Move through these streets like a lamplighter
Touch ragged faces with laughter by my knowledge
Of tragic color on a pavement at the edge
Of the city Softly in the deep East River water

Of dreams in which my long hair flows
Slow waves move Of my beginnings, pauses










34th Street: photo by Rudy Burckhardt, 1978
Pedestrians, New York City: photo by Rudy Burckhardt, 1935 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)