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Columbus Circle
Paul-John Ramos

Fading gray hour of eight o’ clock:
An aspiring blue eye of the River opens,
Paying no mind the cans overfilled with trash.
Hoses are washing the manager’s pavement
And the subway dwellers keep alone.

Those ads on the walkway walls have changed
Perhaps a dozen times in the past year—
Sneakers, Drake’s Cakes, TV shows,
A popcorn brand, to rub it in some more—
And there a group lay along the hall’s perimeter,
Snoring away until the police clean house.

And there will sit downstairs in the late afternoon
A woman more able but not clear of mind, either,
Holding outstretched her amphora-trimmed coffee cup:
Can you spare some change?…Can you spare some change?
With my shameful thought after eight hours at work,
Lady, don’t you have a better line by now?

To these souls, the less broken feel elite.
Please state their crime for constant denial
Of human right. Account for our innocence
In walking past the rag-mounds, the stench,
The endless ramblings of a disastrous mind
With more annoyance than embarrassment.

Noon to 2 is the sound of aluminum foil crinkling,
Tupperware popping open, the crackle of chips.
The earners are at their spots the short-walled labyrinths,
Grinding up their share of all that exists
And of all that seems possible.

By 6, plates and glasses are clacking together
As the wait staffs set up and early birds file in,
The Julliard violinist, tall, Polish-blonde,
Tunes up in the green room for her second-year recital,
Lovers kiss in vestibules, building their affairs,
All paying no mind to the familiar sights:

The passing, blazing headlights of taxicabs,
The clouds blocking the moon, abridged by towers,
The carriage horses blowing flatulence eastward,
The good-natured men of Chelsea in drag,
The drifters clutching at ghosts in the tunnel.

—
Paul-John Ramos is a poet, short story writer, and essayist. His poetry credits include Westchester Review, Atticus Review, Blue Collar Review, and Chest Journal. His essay on Erich Maria Remarque appeared in the July/August issue of Montreal Review.

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