August 16, 2004
Reading Yeats I do not think
of Ireland
but of midsummer New York
and of myself back then
Reading that copy I found
on the Thirdavenue El
The El
with its flyhung fans
and its signs reading
SPITTING IS FORBIDDEN
the El
careening thru its thirdstory world
with its thirdstory people
in their thirdstory doors
looking as if they had never heard
of the ground
