if ever again 
                                                                       with the waves 
                                                                       the dog’s way east 

I keep circling the Triborough Bridge
Hell’s Gate Bridge always with a line of freight cars
Randall’s Island, my sister in red and gold cheerleader clothes

my muse wears contact lenses, 
 maybe she’ll never see 
  past suburbia 

            look to the light

                     over there

                             here

Six days after I put the Audubon Bumper
on the truck I noticed the difference
and Annie sitting next to me

Guest night. Breath-taking games and—spending. 
I play hand-rubbing host, you guest condescending.

If they pay well I tell them “Bene stat
Stop in again the next time you feel horny
In this whorehouse where we hold our state.”

After the first 24 hours
the road begins to
disappear.

And no, I won’t be coming home this year,
although I am bereft to hear your peacock died.

A vast crowd, so many, rushed to the riverbank:
Women and men, famous greathearted heroes, 
The life in their hero bodies now defunct,