New York Sketchbook by Adriana DiGennaro

i can be here and know the streets of new york
know the repetition
of cigarette butts, black dots of gum
stagnant pools of brown water
dirty paper

sometimes Friday night's vomit
splashed onto the asphalt
of sidewalks
gray
square after gray square

i can be here and know the streets
that took me uptown
downtown
on routes I never could navigate well
spring
mercer
fulton
front

how they lay sadly under the heft
of smog and pedestrians
pushing
pressing

i can be here and know
the way feet complain after hours
spent running errands
how they ache when you shift your weight
at the orange don't walk

i can be here
without missing those streets
their weariness that always
reflected my own
when I'd look down dreaming
of dirt and emerald grass