"Scene"

(amid Sixth Avenue in New York)

“Madding Crowd of Sixth Avenue”, photo by James Steeber, December 2022

Photograph by James Steeber, textual accompaniment by P.B. Warrington,
piano backing by James Steeber

                         Scene

                 Human carpet
         Fibers rushing randomly
               Building charge
          Sparking when touched
            Living conveyor belt
               Through chaos
         Each thread convinced
             Of need and want
                 By the motion
        By the sudden discharge

        Sane in their own way
                 Few just bad
   Most just hearing an internal
       Squeaking pitched chorus
     Droning on about meaning

              No one seeing
      Watching where headed
      Going along enraptured
By flickering devices in their hands

          Certain of a world
            Still impervious
          To their existence

   From the first great mistake
          To this latest one
         All the pain gained
            Dealt in reply
        This open wallless
        Boundary channel
  Carried behind each look

   Some faces looking back

     Only one from above
  Seeing through the haze
 Listening through the din