Tuesday Poetry

I haven’t had a poem in a while, and I keep being drawn to city-related scenes – I wonder why that is?

Lower Manhattan Pantoum
Elaine Sexton

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.