Poetics: Subway • The Sounds of Silence

Real loopy we were, in crazy torque
one honeymoon night in New York--
hung around Times Square after dark.

We would not make it to the park
until the next day. But that night
it was darker than light,

our eyes were tired, our feet so sore.
We bought a key-ring alarm in a store
that gave me the creeps, even more

than the imagined peeps it was for.
(What was the rush...we'd
been in the city for a week.)

We were hungry; I needed caffeine
in spite of the rush seeing the ring
on my left hand. Offhand I'd say it

was a screwy kind of night: helter-skelter
sightseeing (I loved NY
sight-unseen since I was nine),

so much to see, too little time,
too emotionally fried
and we lost our way--although we tried

for the right underground station.
Missing the mark led to frustration,
the need for contemplation.

In a sad diner with sour coffee
and stale pie you sweetly kissed me.

Feeling bedraggled, jostled, disjointed,
we headed down for the appointed
route on the map that made sense now.

===We were back on track===, and Wow...

There in concrete tunnels with roaring trains
all complexity was softened by refrains
of (imagine this) The Sounds of Silence

sung by two musicians strumming
the song I'm now humming, remembering--
knowing--not everything's science.

                                                              MLydiaM ~ April 2012



Written for Poetics: Subway at dVerse Poets. Thank you to Claudia for this prompt. She recently visited New York City, and her commentary post is pure poetry itself. Just click on the link and you'll see!





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