More Sky Please

More sky please push open the apartment shutters crowbar the paint factory’s broken window frames rip tar paper from the caving roof push it back crack it open blast an airshaft through the neighboring buildings snap it back expose the bird-ridden drafts the wren’s been busy here mornings year-round churr and chip golden open-throat yodel smack in the sleep cycle soldered to feeder suet in ivy like titmouse chickadee refusing to shift it back Carolina Canada climate haywire more sky please rik tik tik break open more light all the way past oil tank farms creosote docks the Kill Van Kull slide by kingfisher flap past cormorant incongruous flights parallel and merging plunge into slap out of tidal pools the Fresh Kills beak full of killifish and silversides crayfish and krill tarp past the salt grass and bridges fly Pulaski Skyway Bayonne’s silver buildings blank tower blocks sky wide as the river mouth more sky more please push it back past tankers and tugboats the last hulking cruise ship lasers fired across a spinning disco ball wobble bass and echo chamber dancing on deck past clanging buoys waveless channels to deepest basin all things even terns drop away sea and sky opened wide and empty