By Dorothy Johnson-Laird
I wait for a taxi on Lexington Avenue It is early morning, gentle sunlight, I look downtown From the slit of one eye I see a building She shimmies awake under the sky Apart from the other buildings Her silver swirls spiral up I stare at her - a glimmer of light As workers speed by, faces pressed near their bicycles Holding onto the handles with clenched tight hands They swerve at death defying angles And do not notice her as they drive On their individual missions to make that morning meeting To clock in on time at 9, 9:15, ticking, ticking Sudden shifting time Above me, this skyscraper stands distinct from the others With her art deco curves and height She is a tower of beauty in the sky Below, people rapid type on their phones Clutching these objects to them as if nothing else matters Fingers lost in a race of keys, text messages, quick fixes They bolt down the avenue as if afraid to slow down Know deep breaths, the space of silence All grace in architecture invisible to them Quick past the old buildings with their 1920s doors Past the Noguchi sculpture on Rockefeller Plaza With its stainless steel newspaper men leaning out from the wall in all directions Forget slowing down, forget taking these shapes in New Yorkers do not linger Let the tourists do their sightseeing Let them stand in the middle of the street and stare With nowhere else to go, no future design For a few moments, I pause and dream as if I too were from a small town Visiting New York for the first time And had never seen a skyscraper before How tall she is above, glistening in the sun An innovator in high-strength steel She arrived before the Empire State and MetLife buildings In this moment, the Chrysler welcomes the sun White clouds surround this solitary treasure
About the Author:
Dorothy Johnson-Laird is a poet and social worker who lives in New York City. She received an M.F.A in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence College. Dorothy also has a passion for African music. She has published music journalism with www.afropop.org and www.worldmusiccentral.org. Recent poems appeared in Aji, Cantos, Pomona Valley Review, and Pedestal Magazine, among others. Her poems also appeared in the anthology, “Alchemy and Miracles: Nature Woven Into Words.” More of Dorothy’s poetry can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100083698660157