Recently Released  |   Bookshelf  |  Library Pick  |   Book Club   |  Message Board  | Book Chat |  Books Home

  Covering New York Book by Book. New Releases, Old Stand-bys. Individually, by genre and by topic. Got a favorite? an opinion? a particular craving? Let us know.

BOOKSHELF
A Walker’s City
28 Apr 2003

Frank O’Hara’s 1956 poem “A Step Away From Them” is one of his so-called “lunchtime” poems.

It’s my lunch hour, so I go
for a walk among the hum-colored
cabs. First, down the sidewalk
where laborers feed their dirty
glistening torsos sandwiches and Coca-cola, with yellow helmets
on. They protect them from falling
bricks, I guess. Then onto the avenue where skirts are flipping
above heels and blow up over
grates. The sun is hot, but the
cabs stir up the air. I look
at bargains in wristwatches. There
are cats playing in sawdust.
On to Times Square, where the sign
blows smoke over my head, and higher
the waterfall pours lightly. A
Negro stands in a doorway with a
toothpick, languorously agitating.
A blonde chorus girl clicks: he
smiles and rubs his chin. Everything
suddenly honks: it is 12:40 of
a Thursday.

Back to the main story

 

 




This website is brought to you by Citizens Union Foundation. It was made possible by a grant from the Charles Revson Foundation, and receives support from the Rockefeller Foundation, the New York Times Foundation, the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, the Altman Foundation, and viewers like you. Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution.