New York
Translated By Franz Wright
new york, madame,
is a monument to a city
it is
TA-DA
a gigantic pike
whose scales
bristled up stunned
and what used to be just smoke
found a fire that gave it birth
champagne foam
melted into metal
glass rivers
flowing upwards
and things you won't tell to a priest
you reveal to a cabdriver
even time is sold out
when to the public's "wow" and "shhh"
out of a black top hat
a tailed magician
is pulling new york out
by the ears of skyscrapers
Copyright Credit: Valzhyna Mort, "New York" from Factory of Tears, Published in 2008 by Copper Canyon Press, www.coppercanyonpress.org.
Source: Poetry (April 2007)