Cold Lights

Outside my window there is steam
and there are lights in a skyscraper
where people sit at their desks
and the lights let them work.

I bought two hot tamales
from the Mexican food cart
hoping it would warm me.

The lights are cold
as I see them
some go in rows
running away from me
and others go in rows
perpendicular to me.

I like the ones that run away
as if they have a place to go
where at the end of the line
people are warm
without coats.

___

The featured image, ‘Rainy Day’, was used with the permission of artist Pascal Campion.

Alan S. Kleiman

Alan S. Kleiman is the author of GRAND SLAM, a Collection of Poems published by Crisis Chronicles Press. His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Blue Fifth Review, Pirene’s Fountain, Verse Wisconsin, The Criterion, and Festival Writer. Fine Line Press and Red Ochre Press have anthologized his poetry and it has been translated into Spanish, Russian, Polish, Norwegian, Danish and Ukrainian. He appeared at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts as a featured poet in the performing arts series. Alan lives in New York City and works as an attorney when not writing poems.

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