New York! New York! Poem by Kris Atta Pappoe

19
NEW YORK...NEW YORK
And i stood agape in your Citadels
as stormy waves swept avalanches past me.
And i heard your metallic voice
reverberating from beneath the Azure Main.
'Come all ye nations
and i will give you Peace.
Bow your proud knees to me
in subjugation to my creeds of blood and iron
and i will give you the Bread of Life'.
Then the thunder struggled with the gyrating lightning,
and your laughter rang loud and hollow.
But i also heard the moaning of widows
and the wailing of orphans.
the distant rumble of tanks
and the unbroken fall-fall of shells.
the shrieks of death-giving missiles,
amid the stench of innocent blood
in rage I turned away from the glimmer of your heights,
and the sinister allure of your phantom lips.
And I cried: God Help America