|
|
Douglas Tanoury
Ode to Mohawk Avenue
On Mohawk Avenue oaks and elms grow tall
And shade the street in dim twilight
On the brightest afternoons of August
When sunlight burns white and hot
I stop for long whiles to watch the play
Of light and darkness in the topmost limbs
And on the asphalt of the road
Where the blacktop itself becomes like tree bark
The street is empty of people and cars
And is mostly silent and still except for
The wind rustling leaves high in the canopies
And animating the interplay of sunlight and shade
On the roofs of houses that line the street
And lay quite in the coolness like dogs
Sleeping in the shadows
In the waning days of summer
On Mohawk Avenue the oaks and elms
Grow tall and straight like classical columns
In a colonnade of mixed orders
Holding up the temple pediment of summer sky
And I must decide in each case
By the shape and girth of its trunk
If one tree is more Ionic than Doric
In the architecture of an August afternoon
Want to respond to this poem? Do it here!
Return to Poetry
|
|
|
|
