franklin park

up past the playground with
the unpleasant purple rocking dinosaur
and the rainbow slide turning
with gaps between the shades
there is a high point of
bare puddingstone with sometimes encampments
some unfriendly and some nocturnal
and visits must be chosen and timed
when the bottles and pipes and fragments of both
remain in the day

standing centered feet placed carefully
turned in the angle of the wind
in the gaps between the fragments and metal
the trees here are only second growth
but old enough that
you cannot see down through the unbroken glass
of the skyscraper windows and perceive if they are
uninhabited now or only unrealistic
frivolous and extruded at smaller scale with
no interior at all

standing centered and
the trees here are only second growth
but old enough that
you cannot see down to the harbor where
the boats are in their
intricate daily movements under the airport
landing corridor noise and wake
extending out and thinning
to the limits of vision where either it stops or
has no horizon at all

up past the playground and
the trees here are only second growth
but old enough that
you cannot see down to the pasts of
the plain triple-deckers and
the still-breathing distillery smokestacks
when only the fragments of both
remain in the day

up past the playground
standing centered and
the trees here are only second growth
but you cannot see down to
know what is true at all