this poem was half of a word exchange with my beautiful and ever ebullient kb (other half was diane diprima) ... hayes pioneered the translation of latin american poetry into english and here captured something that i instantly recognized ...
M A N H A T T A N
i have eaten the city.
i have seen myself in a thousand doorways,
simple as light,
single as crowds,
the air extinguishes my footsteps.
my skin surrounds the shadow of the
monument.
the long afternoon,
burning with women's beautiful dresses,
flows with the tide of my blood.
among the public privacies of the sunset
i can hear the dust falling.
the reflection of voices
struggles to rise
like a bird without wings.
i have eaten the city,
surrounded by musical silence,
i have swallowed crowds of pigeons.
grass grows on my eyelids,
my body is full of windows.
--H.R. Hays
