Notes I remembered upon returning

Chicago SOS


1. Irving Park/Ravenswood
More of a look, a time of day, the way ginger ale turns
yellow at dusk on the patio behind Café 28

The whooshing rumble
our elevated train-so many feet above.

My calves tip a bit,
jolt jolt.
But you expect it to be so
and lift in anticipation.

2. Wacker
Your French connection picture
blurry and abounding with details.
The movement, propelled forward.

I can see sounds, know them well
can hear:
Taxi cab yellow, dashboard gleam

3. Clark
Why would you insist on walking it,
taking buses crumbled with dirt,
crevices hinged on skin cells.

I told you this is a driving kind of town
you knew but didn’t care. The middle of the country
sleeps inhaling oil fumes,
you are west coast and took them in in gulps.

I prefer the slow silent kind,
the kind taken through tempered glass

4. Adams/Wabash
Ivan’s door seemed real enough to open—
quite large a decade of pain and preparation.

Ivan hidden
on the floor that doesn’t quite
match up, The new wing, the un-blending.
Architecture un-aligned, un-matched, yet workable.

You get to flank
the next gallery, severely nodding.
Would you have stopped and stood looking
had I not taken you
palm to palm to his feet?