Continued

Other Half

Other Half Thank you, I managed to get a seat on the right side, on the side of the river which attracts the overflowing shoreline. With the sign Riverdale and overgrown rocks, the red-brick building. With the sign Yonkerswhich turns gently to the left, then disappears. Thank you, I can watch. With the bridge which we have laid from here to the other shore, in the vicinity of Tarrytown, with its almost imperceptible embankment. And yet,the river sometimes appears at the tracks, as a reminder, and the steep hills on the other side, unmoving, nod, the light alone moved by their fate. And by the river's?—take your eye off it for a second —it gets away at Croton-Harmon, under track three at platform two. If on the other side I'd watch the houses, roads, the trees stripped of their leaves, but shining with this delayed December light, because it's January now—here and there shadows adhere to the trunks. On the rocks at Poughkeepsie I could study the icicles because the sun hadn't broken all the ice yet and January is snowless.And the light, bouncing off the water's surface, even through the tinted windows, draws my inattention. Becausethe river has widened again and the power lines help it not to lose the way. Thank you, I managed 114 once again to get a seat on the right side, even though the far shore turns away and floats out of sight somewhere to the left then returns, straightforward, and the hills stand just over the water soft strong, not hills, cliffs. But then on the river bottom, too, things shift, the terrain changes, the water's temper wavers.At Rhinecliff the water's cooling down, as in that other Rhine, so all the sun's for nothing. The water or the river? Am I my body, am I my eye that's also cooling but sees further off: mountains and, right here, the ice flow? And there's another bridge, frail, bright-dark above the ice, with cars easing into the air so clear and uncountable that you don't know how to return to a place full of individualdays and dreams that don't have time to take like buds in April after a late freeze. Thank you, today I sat on the right side, on the side of the birds who don't feel the chill and sit, feathered,on the water, paddle, flap, look for food. i is (i*«M, 2002) (1994–2002) This page intentionally left blank ...