From marble and granite to steel and glass,
we were discussing Rhina Espaillat’s On the Avenue in class,
was it 1950s or 1980s NYC and were the fifties
the city’s halcyon days or is it now, the 2020s,
the boroughs teeming with immigrants
from the round earth’s imagined corners,
Hasidim and Muslim, Haitian and Russian, as we
Italians and Irish in an earlier era were. Everything will
be ok or not, the recombinations which make
prediction and intuition fortunately hopeless
and each individual an experiment gone well or wrong.
On the avenue God speaks by spewing
toy and clothing stores, breakdancers and ice skaters,
the Brooklyn Navy Yard seen from the Brooklyn Bridge,
the skyline admired when my car broke down on the Triborough Bridge.
The numbers of us overwhelm, there exist powers
overwhelming for the human body and mind.
I don’t mind but I can’t make sense of it.
Gandhi said What you do may not seem important
but it is very important that you do it. By that what is meant?
Linda complained Why does God always have to be a man?
I opined He could be a she but She’s probably really
a Tyrannosaurus rex. I like to be in America!

RED RED ‘O RED’
You come too often now
I thought you died when I moved
I thought you left when I stopped reading the news
I thought I murdered you when I shut my ears
But you are back
Why did I deny your existence in the first place?
Why did I want you dead?
Knowledge is power but it is also red
I am afraid of red
When red comes it shows me how ***** the world is
But maybe it’s time to face it instead of running
Maybe I need to find a colour to drown it with
Maybe red can be power
Maybe red is misunderstood
Maybe red is the colour of standing up against oppression
What if red is the bridge to a new colour
If that is the case, I hope we all feel a minute of red
I hope we can feel the world as one
I hope red doesn’t stay
But for now,
Red is 2020s new colour

lunar

Hayley the coach said it's alright being an introvert,
believe me, I'm one myself!
her smile was like warm confetti!
generally, you need a tab leader!
to draw them in
for your important first impression profile intro,
self-aggrandizement is the highest order!
"Fun-loving person seeks partner in crime"
although avoid cliches.
Instead of "I like walks",
"I love London Midnight ambles"
We've spent an eon down casting ourselves
but Hayley is spreading the new religion,
be an everyday legend.

You still need your head wrapped
around initial ill apt responses
HI Yi!
and how have you coped with COVID?
You need a rear guard retort to answer
Funster seeks a new vista!
offer her scrambled eggs!.

Never had a first date request!
much prefer the slower approach
66.5% surveyed no follow up required
Ask about social distancing
and if a first date hug is okay
were still in the 2020s
consent must be freely given
Love below the sky, still
safety sought.