The End of the City

last night at half past three they met on the docks to discuss the future of the city

standing together a crowd of solemn representatives they divided the place by its spoils and counted everyone

they counted everyone who lived in apartments with doormen, and all the diplomats for all the consulates every city worker and everyone in city housing counted like all the small businessmen and taxi drivers and all the accountants and lawyers and doctors they divided the city with the homeless and the prisoners on Rikers and in the Tombs and with the mafia and all the drug dealers in all the boroughs

the city rose out of its sleep and all the dancers and call girls and all the actors, actresses and artists and all the writers were included in the discussions

the sky turned bright red and then purple and then to night as wave after wave of people surrounded city hall and discussed the future of the city.

all the business executives and wall street brokers and all the secretaries, clerks, word processors and waiters, waitresses, heiresses, models and college professors spun stories and decided to divide the city which was nearly broke, with broken streets and dirty buildings

they all sat together and discussed the future dividing up the property and the air, all that made the city a city, each took his own thinking that they each only wanted a tiny part of the city that somehow belonged to them

each and everyone struggled in the last analysis wanting more than would ever be given