for Beth, fellow MSW student,9/'03
Lean-ing.
Leaning against center doors of the rumbling subway train
rush hour passed Times Square coming/
from south Brooklyn where i intern at a foster care reaching/
Columbia University/
heavy carrier bag courtesy/
of School of Social Work strapped to my poor right shoulder
in land of the free,
city of the free
to eat, sleep & spit;
annoying high school kids being
annoying high school kids
but i wont blame them for what older hip hoppers
remember behaving like/ weight thrown side to side on the 9.
Sounds like
a Speedy Gonzalez chain gang
speaking tongues the devil wont discipher
thoughts of you Beth/ thoughts of Beth/ pretending i can talk to Beth
beautiful smile right there
but refraining from imaginary conversation/
gots to be careful (this time) about shifting my weight for an imaginary woman
so i replay recent conversations we've had
via our recent time in undergrad
"sitting in a tree l-a-u-g-h, i-n-g,"
just us two "candles of a menorah"
words i wrote in a pass poem
poor in quality stemmed from a poor right shoulder/
but couldn't help but test the warm coal
in a plate of holy water,
fssssss,
about what what she could pray for me
and about what she last learned in church;
and then our train stops/
plops open another epiphany:
i've been worshipping God
on a "116th street, Columbia University."