Standing On 42nd And Eighth

Standing on 42nd and Eighth
      Catching one last long look
Before ducking into Port Authority
      Before heading out to destinatons west

There's a place where you can look
      Down 42nd to see the Chrysler Building
And also through the building tops several clicks to the right
      To see the Empire State Building
Best friend spires from another era
      Points on top of stacks of floors

The shorter building looking like right out of
      A Superman or Dick Tracy comic strip
The Metropolis legend, its lofty corners
      Curved, melted, smelted into shapes
That caress the sky with slippery steel
      Shining bright and clean whenever the sunlight hits

The other the venerable old general
      Like George Washington standing square shouldered
Not the fancy shapes of the Chrysler
      And having been dethroned for a quarter century
By the dear departed twins
      For whom this building of concrete and windows
            Still seems to weep, its burden heavier now
      That the job, "tallest in the city,"
            Has once again fallen across its back
Like the yoke holding the farmer's plow oxen

Slowly, gradually, dutifully it has returned
      To claim the mantle, its former stature as tallest
            But only reluctantly, gladly it would relinquish the title
      If only its younger step-siblings
Could once-again be raised

Standing on 42nd and Eighth
      Catching one last long look
Before ducking into Port Authority
            Before heading out to destiantions west


For Conversations With Walt
Denis J. Kelly
July 6, 2011