the long walk west on 18th street is the same
at 6 am and pm there is no light, it is cold,
I am swimming to the sunrise
or I have already missed the sunset.
and there is this pool surrounded by glass.
I can see the freedom tower and new jersey,
there is water floating next to water
buoyancy flowing next to what is hope.
I am there with the other people who cannot sleep,
who get up before the trains know how to run.
we savor bodega coffee on the subway just to keep warm
I walk in what feels like the middle of the night
in summer I would be surrounded by hot wind
and a blooming earth this time of morning.
instead the sky turns pale grey from slate slowly
between each stroke I pull myself through rain.
and all the light we cannot see is culled
and things are chaotic in every crevice of sky.
we didn’t know what to do with the moon
collecting clusters of stars, gravitationally bound.