Tuesday, September 03, 2013

Outside the Loop Line Window


The train window
takes my face and puts it
outside, floating
like a ghost staring back
from the passing static
and abruptly erupting city-scape
that hugs Osaka’s Loop Line curve.

I see me out there. My
face. My tint of skin. My 
recognizable biometric shadows: 
nose, jaw, cheeks and brow. I’ve become
this city’s low hanging sky.

That is me 
constantly filled 
by the flow of buildings, 
signage and lines on the street,
by platform lighting and expressions
of strangers flashing into the space
my head occupies. 
I look into their eyes 
as my eyes.
Their faces my faces.

If I focus beyond my gaze, 
I see all of Osaka passing through my face. 
It wears my nose, Paul Smith glasses and fucked-up hair-do.

Yellow-glowing parking lots. 
Pachinko parlors. 
Walls of apartment windows, 
each shining of a different light.
Umeda’s rectilineal rows of brake lights.
A dim, quick bedroom.
Polished steel trash cans.

All of this quiet city flows 
left to right within my skin and eyes, 
like dreams I am
having at this edge of history.
Thoughts and memories arise
in my watching, making me
of their image. 



by jerry gordon
12.23.2009

1 Comments:

Blogger Adam said...

Jerry,

Beautiful as always, my dear prodical friend. atomweller@gmail.com

12:34 AM  

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