More Sky Please
More sky please push open the apartment shutters
crowbar the paint factory’s broken window frames rip
tar paper from the caving roof push it back crack it open
blast an airshaft through the neighboring buildings snap
it back expose the bird-ridden drafts the wren’s been busy
here mornings year-round churr and chip golden open-throat
yodel smack in the sleep cycle soldered to feeder suet
in ivy like titmouse chickadee refusing to shift it back
Carolina Canada climate haywire more sky please rik tik tik
break open more light all the way past oil tank farms
creosote docks the Kill Van Kull slide by kingfisher flap
past cormorant incongruous flights parallel and merging
plunge into slap out of tidal pools the Fresh Kills beak
full of killifish and silversides crayfish and krill tarp
past the salt grass and bridges fly Pulaski Skyway
Bayonne’s silver buildings blank tower blocks sky
wide as the river mouth more sky more please push it back
past tankers and tugboats the last hulking cruise ship
lasers fired across a spinning disco ball wobble bass
and echo chamber dancing on deck past clanging buoys
waveless channels to deepest basin all things even
terns drop away sea and sky opened wide and empty
Source: Poetry (October 2017)