Heart of the city, Nick Lowe said,
Back in the days when the city had
A heart. New York I loved you like Patti Smith
Like Big Hair, like apples. I loved you but
You are gone now, dispersed, lungs, tongue and teeth
Chattering in the chill of a Buenos Aires August,
Borscht Belt Blues. The Catskills are in New Jersey,
Your heart is in San Francisco, city of hearts.
That like you no longer has a heart. I’ve
Willed my own to some poor sick baboon In the San Diego zoo with a face like Al Lewis
You know, Grandpa Munster, to try and make things right.
The absconded trash of thy silk purse-strings shiver
Like tiny lights
Over Shanghai harbor, Marlon Brando & William Holden, the city
disremembers you.
