What generations could have dreamed
This grandchild of the shopping streets, her eyes
In the buyer’s light, the store lights
Brighter than the lighthouses, brighter than moonrise
From the salt harbor so rich
So bright her city
In a soil of pavement, a mesh of wires where she walks
In this new winter among enormous buildings.
George Oppen, 1908-1984 – “Pedestrian” from New Collected Poems

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