Pantoums for the City.

1.
I dreamed about
the chair on the wall
with rubber breasts
and one hairy leg:
   the chair on the wall
   painted white
   and one hairy leg
   dangling like a tail.
Painted white
in a room,
dangling like a tail,
I was the one on display.
   Myself a monument
   with rubber breasts
   and people watching
   I dreamed about.

2.
Two Mexicans sang
on the F train,
took offerings,
said "gracias."
   On the F train,
   an old Chilean woman
   said "gracias"
   as a man gave her his seat.
An old Chilean woman
with Neruda's impassioned face--
as a man gave her his seat--
grasped the rail beside her.
   Later, after she
   took offerings,
   she feel asleep while
   two Mexicans sang.

3.
In this city
I drink coffee,
watching people,
and walk fast.
   I drink coffee
   in a dark cafe
   and walk fast
   in the cold.
In a dark cafe
I read Virginia Woolf
in the cold
window seat alone.
   On a sunny bench
   watching people,
   I sing to myself
   in this city.

4.
There was music
in the small hallway
and a video of a man
in a submarine
   in the small hallway
   with wooden stairs
   in a submarine
   brick building.
With wooden stairs,
I climbed the gallery's
bricking building
and saw photos from Vietnam
   in black and white
   and a video of a man
   greeted me as I left.
   There was music.

5.
What did Picasso think
about young French women
staring at his whores
with their dark eyes;
   about young French women
   speaking too fast for me,
   with their dark eyes
   on those angular bodies made art:
Speaking too fast for me,
I only hear a "magnifique"
on those angular bodies made art
before the women leave.
   A German family comes next,
   staring at his whores
   and asking each other
   what did Picasso think?