City Tulips

“again the unbroken rumble of trucks and the hiss
of brakes roll upward out of the avenue
I forget what season they are exploding through
what year the drill on the sidewalks is smashing
it is the year in which you are sitting there as you are
in the morning speaking to me and I hear
you through the burning day and I touch you
to be sure and there is time there is still time”

—W.S. Merwin, from “The Sound of the Light” in The Rain in the Trees

(From Visitors, an ongoing series of street photography on Boston’s mass transit.)