Poem of the day 08.04.08

poet in new york

it was another nightclub
in another trendy section
of the city.
just another underage girl
from the suburbs
drunk and stumbling along
the street.
abducted.
taken to a jersey motel
by an ex-con and his whore.
raped.
sodomized
and strangled to death.
in the morning they found
her naked body stuffed
in a suitcase
at the bottom of a dumpster.
two days later
i read the story in the
daily news,
about an hour before leaving
for new york city,
where when i got there
i sat in the white horse tavern
watching hudson street,
eating a hamburger
and enjoying many beers
as james brown played
on the jukebox,
and my wife and i talked
excitedly
about how glad we were
to be back in gotham,
as dylan thomas bought
schopenhauer
a whisky at the bar
and the day burned on
behind warped glass.