Slumbering woman on the bank,
Blue lady of slow flowing pulse
Can we rejuvenate you?
By some injection of starlight?
I walk your cobblestone streets
Pondering your every wrinkle,
I stroke your rusted iron hair
Recolor it black as once forged!
To hope the flush red saturate
Returns to your façade,
To hope the celebrated life
Return to every street and house.
Molt that scaly flesh
For the moon will soon wax full
Return to that luscious youth
For I am bound in your embrace.
Paddlewheels bang out ragtime
Sunrise reflects off a satin arch
Set the city afire once more
With passions still harbored
in your soul. (gls 1982)
