Post - URBAN WILDLAND

After all of August, our
Escape from New York*
Was effected at a moment
When the earth sat between
The sun and the moon.

I had grown accustomed to
Watching the sun rising
Across the East River
Between the towers along
The shoreline of Queens.

As this morning dawned the three
Heavenly bodies were in a syzygy.
The rising sun was thus mirrored
By a moon sinking over Manhattan.
It was a cosmic farewell…

To a city that I had enjoyed
Best at its edge - an urban ecotone
Of concrete walls founded on piles
Driven deep into the sand and rock
Bordering this North Atlantic estuary.

I walked most mornings to
Asser Levy outdoor gym on 25th St.
Returning across the FDR bridge to
Waterside Plaza, past the booze cruise
Yachts, and thence to the waterfront…

Where Stuyvesant Cove Park is now
Edged by flood walls and terraces
Designed to withstand storm surges
And a Hurricane Sandy-like
Assault on Floodgate 13.*

Some mornings, drizzly and grey
The view across the water dissolved
Into a fog of unknowing -
The far shore drained of substance
My amygdala recalling the Neolithic.

*Referencing John Carpenter films
from 1976 and 1981.