The Flora and Fauna of Marine Park, Brooklyn

A rhinoplasty of row houses noses
over the sidewalk. Astroturf
front yards display flocks of extruded
flamingos tended by toppling Virgin
Marys in mottled shawls of moss
and soot. Down the block, at the park
the vines of a thousand leashes sprout
small spayed dogs with Italian names.

Hidden beyond the parked cars and high
brush is a salt marsh, low tide conjuring
up capers and the secret life
of bivalves. Entranced, I slip towards the sea,
following the ocean scent beyond society
to a bit of cove, empty
save for me and a tribe of tiny crabs
gathered on the Masada of their sandbar.

In the stillness I could hear the machines
assembling just beyond the reeds
and the Roman columns advancing.

                                                                                    Published by The Brooklyner