.
![[East+Wind+Over+Weehawken+Bigger.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn6cV9jseYKujzaZxrBcggUiuhYToupbezLgIp2idoW-OF4Y5Hh18e1eSC9VBoXJ3XRGETJQmvtTPpxpSWIeI2rEenQiPVjUMK6oUWHMiRsK5NdiCJ_-MhrHKAMWgHY71mIssYbczx1Q/s1600/East+Wind+Over+Weehawken+Bigger.jpg)
Nobody's home, but the For Sale sign
speaks of a collapsed urban economy
and parked just down the block
in an undelivered future
is an abandoned car
with idiotic beeps emanating from it
messages to the past
from the absence where we are
the wind setting off mechanized alarms
an animated bedlam
in the night
East Wind over Weehawken: Edward Hopper, 1934 (Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, via Hunting Nighthawks)
speaks of a collapsed urban economy
and parked just down the block
in an undelivered future
is an abandoned car
with idiotic beeps emanating from it
messages to the past
from the absence where we are
the wind setting off mechanized alarms
an animated bedlam
in the night
East Wind over Weehawken: Edward Hopper, 1934 (Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, via Hunting Nighthawks)
Often the pangs of pain emanating from the unsettling evolution drive reminds us of the past.
ReplyDeleteI came home. A little journey on the bike, riding pillion. And then I read this. I felt quiet. A reassuring quiet. The kind you feel when you feel the content maybe.
Look into the rear view mirror.
To see the trees and leaves, folded at the bends. Wires cropped at the curves. Deserted a moment later, so that we could dart ahead.
Look up to see, what shall pass by us. In the rear view mirror.
We thrived on a certain Southeast wind today.
Us, we recast every journey's meaning into plurality of the milestones amassed thus far.
Aditya.
Aditya,
ReplyDeleteLovely, I am put in mind suddenly of a motorbike riding scene in one of my favourite films, Hou Hsiao-Hsien's Goodbye South, Goodbye. Check it out sometime, it has a tone not unlike that of your poetry.
Otto,
Right...
To quote that notable bard Aditya,
"Look up to see, what shall pass by us. In the rear view mirror."
I think it's gaining on us. Wind-aided.
perfect lines for my nyc today today
ReplyDeleteor is it day today?
thx tom
Zev,
ReplyDeleteYes it's crazy everywhere.
"It's like night and day," people used to say, meaning something about absolute difference.
But when the streets are empty and the wicked wind is swirling and the car alarms are going nuts, I can't help wondering if someone or something isn't trying to tell us something about the consequences of our resolute human inconsequentiality; and the difference between the humans who own the insanely beeping machines and the machines themselves then begins to feel blurred, no longer an absolute, more like a matter of degree.
Dante insisted on having all those gradations...
In intensive care units the twilight zone of beepers and flashing lights creates what they call the sundown effect, neither day nor night, threshhold to the descent...minim by minim... down is up, up is down... Dante would have gone crazy... but of course in his day the absolutes could be made out once you emerged into the light of day.
Whereas now I think it's probably night, but I wouldn't want to sign my name to it.
Aditya,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your 1/22 post.
Highly recommended.