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