Aesthetic Realism Looks at New York City: Poetry
Louis Dienes
Energy of New York
Cool milk cools still and somewhere cows graze
And the trees, following the yearly rise of temperatures,
Blossom and give forth young leaves,
Not lushly here as in Italy, Greece or Spain,
Steeped in traditions and war-torn,
But palely, all overshadowed by the asphalt ribbons
And brick boxes covering the ground.
Here where the straight line and the sharply defined form predominate, Where people ride daily in metal cars on parallel rails
To buildings made with steel skeletons,
Where people are employed running engines made of machined parts, Nevertheless pears, milk, livestock, bags of flour are needed, are received, From where curve predominates and forms are vague.
In ten thousand gallon tanks early in the morning
Milk rolls into the city from New Hampshire and Wisconsin;
Morning, noon, and afternoon, and all night long
Carloads of apples and pears arrive and boatloads of bananas,
Carloads of ores and chemicals,
Boatloads of coffee, cotton, corn, wool, and more ores
For the people to work on with their multifarious engines,
To change in form, to use, to pass on to people in other places.
Copyright 2008 by Louis Dienes