Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Retired Ballerinas, Central Park West

Retired ballerinas on winter afternoons
         walking their dogs
                     in Central Park West
   (or their cats on leashes—
      the cats themselves old highwire artists)
The ballerinas
               leap and pirouette
                          through Columbus Circle
        while winos on park benches
              (laid back like drunken Goudonovs)
           hear the taxis trumpet together
              like horsemen of the apocalypse
                              in the dusk of the gods
It is the final witching hour
               when swains are full of swan songs
   And all return through the dark dusk
               to their bright cells
                                 in glass highrises
     or sit down to oval cigarettes and cakes
                             in the Russian Tea Room
   or climb four flights to back rooms
                                in Westside brownstones
              where faded playbill photos
                       fall peeling from their frames
Other works by Lawrence Ferlinghetti...



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