SNS Press Home
Contact Us
Author Richard Sidy
Poetry Home Page

 



New York City

Poetry Index

Out of My Skin
Monarch
A Matter of Scale

Heat Wave
Poet and Pet
Awakening
Rebirth

A Reasonable Life

Snapshots 2006
Haikus
Hush and Listen
Faces
Lizard Thoughts
Thunder
White Rose
Mother of the World
Finally

Poems 2005 —
Passion & Discontent
Absence
Blind
Dance
Dry
The Wake of Disaster

Evening
Mama's Tears
Nude
Old Furniture
Pertoglyphs

Rest
Saved
Sounds of an Empty Promise
Entertainment
Sycamores
Three Quarters
Vientos del Mediterráneo
Weavings

Battle
Giving In

Poems 2004
The Dissappearance of Lao Tsu
Nameless Beauty
Commuting
Memory Game
Every Little Thing Counts
Landscapes of Yo Yo Ma's Brazil
Miles (to Miles Davis)
The Colors of Piazzolla's Tango

War and Peace
Making Friends
Old Glory
Kabul Update
Take Heart
March Madness

Poems 2003
Johnny Cash
Between Heartbeats
"Naked Poetry"
Sunflower Sonnet No. 1.5

New York City
My NYC is not your NYC
SanitationWorker, NYC
Gentrification
Passing By
Belly-button Renaissance
West Chelsea

Poems 2002
Crisis
Finding Each Other
Kindred Spirits
Meteor
To Our Youth
At Sunset
Questions
Hollyhock
Holland in Winter

On Society
Mirrors
McKinney X-Tex
Lady Liberty
Making Friends
Old Glory
Walking

Life's Lessons
Child's Life
Crashing Surf
In Search of the Unknown
Love at First Sight
Holding Hands
Grandpa's Tools

Musings
First Snow
Impressionism
Anonymous
Downcast Eyes
Sagrada Familia

In France
French Gardens
Air Show
Cell Phones 01-04

Churches
Lovers in the Castle


 

West Chelsea – Meat Packing

A game of tag -
cracked concrete slabs
stained slaughterhouse aprons
shiny white boutiques
black letters on windows
no caps
designer names escaping
from wide avenues
small kitchen sculptures
cut from trendy magazines
"functional aesthetics" for lofts
accents for rough steel
anti-gravity plastic bubbles
redefining the chair
defying the past
like paint over
ages of bloody overalls
tight jeans now
seeking croissants
and other delicacies
in abandoned factories
while apartment dogs
on leashes
avoid men
with sides of butchered beef
and cigarettes dangling
avoid murky puddles
with diesel rainbows
avoid derelict walls
with post-impressionist patinas
of peeling paint
pushing decay and death
farther, farther
into the Hudson river
to glorify new art
gutting buildings
reclaimed from industry
instead of cattle and sheep
naked pipes, ducts and beams
flaunt their anatomy
stripped to show their fitness
jogging along the piers
past stately facades
to make a statement
amongst planters of tropical foliage
and black marble tiles
sweeping drifting trash
from rusting buildings
energy drinks and cappuccino
can't be drunk
from brown bags in doorways
round abuelas on stoops
still rock the buggies
still gossip and click
while children
not yet discouraged
teeter and totter
in minimalist playgrounds
big boys and girls
play multicultural hoops
in courtship rites
with their big baggy pants
and dribbling dance
refugees from high SOHO rent
join the village scene
play their games
in cavernous space
galleries pushing boundaries
of artistic tastes
inviting zen teahouses
and doggy spas
welcome the industry
of imagination.



© 2004 Richard Sidy

 

© 2004 SNS Press
Top of page
<<previous poem

Poetry Home Page

next poem>>