World Trade Center Approach, 1981

In the style of Sandburg's Rootabaga Stories

Today we went to the Land of Top to Bottom. 
We came to it through a tunnel with green lights, 
and walked through a hallway underground 
that had circles of white light on the floor. 
When you stepped on a circle of light it blinked off, 
and when you stepped off it, it blinked on. 
We went up a long stairway and into the sun. 

The buildings we saw were so tall, they looked like 
smooth blocks of glass with razor edges 
and slick reflecting swipes of glassy thinner glass 
shining all the way up to the high sky.
And in the swirling sward of busy people
we stayed and turned in our own circles, 
dizzy with looking up, and dizzy with looking down.

~~

Doug Logan, 2017