THE GALLERIES

(Library overlooking into shopping mall)

This town hasn't the mercy
         to build walls at the right angles.
         For the spaces open and closed
         there should also be
         the threshold.

And table arrangements here
        the big and hard - so also less
        to spare me & not share-but
        clinically dissect me
        over time.

Here's a fortress made of glass;
           a glass threshold has wandered here,
           the time over for our blood
           congeles and cracks in
           a hanging box.

It leans about and views
    the glittering pit, so absolute
    voyeurism trapped above those
    browsing— too strained of—
    being watched.

Started while residing on McBride St. in Syracuse, NY; 1992, aged 24 or 25.