This is the real city

Of walking from Queens to downtown

For an interview, in mid-August, because 

You don’t have enough money for subway fare.

Walking in a cheap suit

Rotting off your sweating frame,

Going to put on a show 

For the chance of money.

The air is as thick as cheesecake,

That stings your eyes

With the smell of garbage and street meat,

With gray dust floating everywhere like a dirty aquarium.

And on the way back,

After the obligatory handshake

And the dispiriting “we’ll be in touch”,

Walking back to the land of the plastic bag stuck in a tree,

The darkest apartment in Queens,

The half-empty streets and the Polish market,

Walking back, 

You see your shadowy reflection

In black marble 

In front of Chase Manhattan Bank

Looking back at you like your half-dead self

Checking you out from the murky beyond.

Walking uptown

Past open retail stores

Where a blast of air conditioning 

Comes down your neck as kindness.

Walking through Times Square,

You loosen your tie,

You come upon a huckster’s paradise;

The kind of life you should be living,

Refreshing, in control, bold.

A hurricane of images and video

Flying around the vortex, and

In the middle, you approach a glass booth,

A wind tunnel with money flying around

Like the images circulating above.

A spokesmodel stands next to the glass booth

In a short red dress, her white legs

As remote and inviting as a mannequin’s,

Her lips, so red and full of lipstick,

Like two strawberries 

Pressed together.

On the other side of the booth

A salesman wearing a headset microphone,

Telling jokes to the crowd, inviting you

To parktake, just sign your name,

Walk into the cool air-conditioned booth,

As beads of sweat pour off your bald head,

Just walk in and grab as much cash as you can,

Sign your name, walk in,

When the money starts flying, 

Jump around, reaching, ever reaching

For all that cheddar, 

That loot, that scratch.

Your eyes, large as golfballs

Staring at the booth,

Sweat pouring down your face,

The salesman smiles, gestures to the model,

She claps and cheers you on

To go in, sign your name,

Save yourself, save yourself,

Save yourself;

All you need to do 

Is sign your name,

Walk in

And save your Self.