A Reaction to Rita Dove's "Thomas and Beulah"

A Reaction to Rita Dove's "Thomas and Beulah"

He could not avoid the parking lots
And forty-story buildings
With billboards pinned on like buttons
The night sky glowed above him
And the sirens wailed below
At midnight the clouds
Had a green cast
From the spotlights
That lit up the riverside
Banks and shops and corporate offices
On the fire escape
The iron clanks with every step
And the wind blows straight up
Carrying the smell of garbage and alley
But an upward wind makes the eyelids light
And after twelve hours of work
It's the only place to avoid sleeping