Screen Gem by Hudson Aimless

I observe, with care, filmed scenes of our new York city
Brief glimpses intercut by razor
Or long passages
that roll on like our Hudson and our East
I have lived long enough
And walked enough of her streets
That subway cars roaring and street signs stoic
Splashed across my screen
Quicken the blood.
"That's that place!" I'll exclaim.

The crowds that flow the streets,
Captured on screen as our heartlandıs wheat,
our amber waves,
Those rows of taxi cabs, their drivers speak in purple
tongues at one another, at life.
I think warmly (sitting in the back)
They have given the colors to America's filmstock.

She flirts with us, with the camera,
This New city.
She is the city that Athens dreamed in perfection,
That Rome birthed in its commonness
That Paris sang of with Degas' kidd glove outstretched.

The star, the background, the lens,
She is all of it, brash and bashful.
Kiss her.
I would, I would if I could.
I love her films, I have seen her in everything.
I see her in everything.

But best, I think, in b&w,
just a little ancient, a little proper,
with neon signs, bleeding white like flashbulbs,
calling out 'coffee' and 'hamburgers' and 'open'
(Always open. She is always interested, this new woman
of York.
A million open doors and windows
open to ideas, to visitors.)
Back then her skyline in its prime
dear New York City,
turn your other cheek
So beautiful in profile,
Lit by Hollywood, (whose fantasy your backyards nurtured)
Honest and shining
Even in the depths of your darkest slumber.