03 June 2013

Jonas Bronck and the Dollar Savings Bank

at the Dollar Savings Bank Jonas
Bronck stands, perpetually in negotiation
with some Indians, sealing the
deal, making an exchange

while mother waits on line,
heavy rolls of coins weighing down
her everyday handbag, to his left the first stone
house is raised and a new
community started under the
same old sun, stone by stone,
the panels bordered in gilded goldleaf in
this palace of art deco, high-ceilinged, velvet-roped

and the teller with teased hair
wearing a green-black-pink-paisley blouse smooths back
an errant curl and gestures with

her eyes.  Next.   then back to the
burning sun outside, walking past Poe's
house and on to St. James Park, we
exchange time for money and, sometimes, time for art,

building up a life in this
new world
brick by brick, stone
by stone

No comments: