Wednesday 9 May 2012

New York City

 After Leonard Cohen, Famous Blue Raincoat






There’s rain in the morning, the mid of December
I am looking for coffee and someplace to wander
New York is cold, but I like where I am living
The High Line Park is close by and the sparrows there are singing

I hear they’ve built the skyscraper national park* on the tip of an island
They sell tickets to climb them, ‘why should we’ isn’t on record

I came back with a sense of the place, a feel–
No, it wasn’t a Woody Allen film
Or like Sex and the City
Do you see what I mean?

As the rain cleared I saw it looked so much familiar
That highway from Delhi, that street like in London
The flowers on the pavement, the people rushing
Sights and smells from Bombay kept coming back, flooding

The book I had grabbed on my way to catch the flight
‘Invisible Cities’ by Calvino proved a good companion and guide

Well I see you there with the people, the buildings, those streets
One more crowded metropolis
Well I see you’ll, perhaps, disagree–

But know that I liked you, the instant I saw you
Your charm has its own familiar, peculiar sway
What more can I possibly say?
I guess I like living in cities– the energy, the madness–
I am glad we got acquainted that day


*Kurt Vonnegut famously referred to Manhattan as ‘the skyscraper national park’.

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