Four years ago
April 21, 2020
No planes
In the sky
No people
On Vanderbilt Avenue
Me
Alone
Same today
April 21 2024
Afternoon
Cold
Gray clouds
A pale silver sun
Over a bankrupt luxury condo
A few people on the sidewalk.
Four years ago
None
Me
Out for a walk
Alone
Today alone
Although a few people on the sidewalk.
We survived that crisis
Fifteen thousand years ago
The Ice Age
A glacier
A mile high
Over Clinton Hill
Homo erectus
Neanderthals
Cro-magnons
Survived.
We will survive the now to come
2050
World population
500 million.
I will be one of us
97 years old
In Thailand
With my children
Grandchildren
Great-grandchildren
My wives too.
Songkran hot
97 degrees.
Emerald
Rice paddies
Running west to Burma.
Peace
Quiet
No planes in the sky
And at night
Only the stars.