February Evening In New York - Aga Zaryan

As the stores close, a winter light

Opens air to iris blue

Glint of frost through the smoke

Grains of mica, salt of the sidewalk

As the buildings close, released autonomous

Feet pattern the streets

In hurry and stroll;

balloon heads

Drift and dive above them;

the bodies

Aren’t really there

As the lights brighten, as the sky darkens

A woman with crooked heels says to another woman

While they step along at a fair pace

«You know, I’m telling you, what I love best

Is life.

I love life!

Even if I ever get

To be old and wheezy-or limp!

You know?

Limping along?-I'd still … «Out of hearing

To the multiple disordered tones

Of gears changing, a dance

To the compass points, out, four-way river

Prospect of sky

Wedged into avenues, left at the ends of streets

West sky, east sky: more life tonight!

A range

Of open time at winter’s outskirts