I have always wanted
Sharp Manhattan teeth.
The lower half of an incomplete jaw,
Swallowing sky,
Braced with steel bridges.
Cables thin as capillaries,
And much like the veinous membrane
That is the city,
A hundred cities,
A thousand cities,
In one mouth.
—Brooklyn, winter 2005
Written atop a roof in Williamsburg overlooking Manhattan in the freezing cold dawn while working on a feature film set.