My third book, Shadow and Memory, has a four-part poem entitled “Cityscapes.” I wrote this poem while we were visiting a city a few hours from the smallish town where we live.
Below is the final part of “Cityscapes.” In one way, each of these poems stands alone and presents a different view of the city. But each poem also adds to an overarching theme that culminates in the last section.
IV.
On the side of a building
is a mural of a man
without a face.
Eyes, cheekbones, mouth—-
all features—-waffle-ironed
by pixels of many colors,
boxes crowded together
like the tops of skyscrapers,
as if a city was built there
to block out his countenance.
Long hair rivulets around this grid
and tributaries into the beard
flowing from his chin.
Who is this man
that is so defaced
whose head
fanged branches bite
as they slither over and under each other
in a braided crown?
A Wandering Minstrel 