Triborough Bridge: Stasis Poem by William R. Rodriguez

where is everybody going
the best part of this bridge is the middle
between here and there
between above and below
between all the points
on the invisible compass
of our existence
between scylla and charybdis
to the east the solemn frown
of the railroad bridge over the bucolic hell gate
to the west the land of opportunity and misfortune
the magnificent skyline
a forest of penthouse and project
where the homeless home in the shadows
humanity is beautiful from a distance
the landfills bloom with green growth
frivolous waves drown the effluence
of the money mad world
to the north the sewage treatment plant
that will never make us clean
and the manhattan psychiatric hospital
and the center for the criminally insane
and the abandoned asylum
where inmates laughed at pedestrians
as they walked across the sky
in the longago days of carefree strolls
before random violence
before muggings in broad daylight
the happy people of wards island
picnic beneath trees
to the south children splash
in the clear blue water of astoria pool
imagining that they are sharks
or whales or submarines
imagining that summer will never end
reality is such an imposition
like the grim stone of the war memorial
just beyond their youthful laughter
and above restless clouds drive by
on their ceaseless commute
below there is bedlam and mayhem and the tides
swirl over suicides and shipwrecks
but here in the middle there is peace
there is stasis
there is the music
of wind murmuring through cables
why must every polluted river be crossed
here words are invisible
and the past is no more
the future is but the loss of the present
leap to the sky
not to fly
jump to the water
never to swim again
walk ashore
to live and die in the eternal city
where the meek await to inherit
what is left of the earth
o the hovering the hovering