Into the Day

The early morning chill Has more room to roam And it whistles around corners And settles on the sidewalks Roused by the street-sweepers In flurries, circling And whipping my early-riser hair Into my eyes So I can’t see the dark before me. But then we’re off The highway our tail, Flying back behind us And the streetlights bow And shut their lights as we pass Ushering us into the day As the sun’s watercolors Cross the sky They are intensified Their light is echoed Off the glass skyscrapers Making sun after sun after sun Shine in our eyes They’re distorted on the ripples Of the river As a shipping-boat passes Underneath the bridge. When the sun cracks the horizon The chill liquefies It settles on the evergreens And awnings on the restaurants And apartment buildings Only the corners in the shadows That the sun can’t reach Still keep their chill Where the buildings Tower toward each other On the narrow alley-ways Freezing the water in its position And the Empire State Reaches for the MetLife building Just previously the Pan-Am building. The sun melted off the signs Created by the chill Stripped the gloves and hats And revealed the skin And the gray beneath The layers of white Hidden before.