BROADWAY

Light!

Innumerable ions of light,

Kindling, irradiating,

All to their foci tending...

Light that jingles like anklet chains

On bevies of little lithe twinkling feet,

Or clingles in myriad vibrations

Like trillions of porcelain

Vases shattering...

Light over the laminae of roofs,

Diffusing in shimmering nebulae

About the night's boundaries,

Or billowing in pearly foam

Submerging the low-lying stars...

Light for the feast prolonged —

Captive light in the goblets quivering...

Sparks evanescent

Struck of meeting looks —

Fringed eyelids leashing

Sheathed and leaping lights...

Infinite bubbles of light

Bursting, reforming...

Silvery filings of light

Incessantly falling...

Scintillant, sided dust of light

Out of the white flares of Broadway —

Like a great spurious diamond

In the night's corsage faceted...

Broadway,

In ambuscades of light,

Drawing the charmed multitudes

With the slow suction of her breath —

Dangling her naked soul

Behind the blinding gold of eunuch lights

That wind about her like a bodyguard.

Or like a huge serpent, iridescent-scaled,

Trailing her coruscating length

Over the night prostrate —

Triumphant poised,

Her hydra heads above the avenues,

Values appraising

And her avid eyes

Glistening with eternal watchfulness...

Broadway —

Out of her towers rampant,

Like an unsubtle courtezan

Reserving nought for some adventurous night.