"O" for Meghan O'Rourke

I randomly chose an "O" author since I could not think of one off the top of my head.  The poem's title spoke to me--tired and needing my morning coffee.  Well, the work has nothing to do with my needs, but I enjoyed the audio version reading.  When I think of New York, these are images that come to mind.

O'Rourke is a young poet (ok--for the next few years anyone born after me will be considered "young"--ha! ha!).  Click HERE to listen to the audio version.

SLEEP

Pawnbroker, scavenger, cheapskate,

come creeping from your pigeon-filled backrooms,

past guns and clocks and locks and cages,

past pockets emptied and coins picked from the floor;

come sweeping with the rainclouds down the river

through the brokenblack windows of factories

to avenues where movies whisk through basement projectors

and children peel up into the supplejack twilight—

there a black-eyed straight-backed drag queen

preens, fusses, fixes her hair in a shop window on Prince,

a young businessman jingles his change

and does his Travis Bickle for a long-faced friend,

there on the corner I laughed at a joke Jim made.

In the bedroom the moon is a dented spoon,

cold, getting colder, so hurry sleep,

come creep into bed, let’s get it over with;

lay me down and close my eyes

and tell me whip, tell me winnow

tell me sweet tell me skittish

tell me No tell me no such thing

tell me straw into gold tell me crept into fire

tell me lost all my money tell me hoarded, verboten,

but promise tomorrow I will be profligate,

stepping into the sun like a trophy.

Source: Poetry (September 2005).