Robins pulse at their feeders—
Chinese bottle gourds
strung along the black elm.
Downtown, a canyon
of brick & avenue
moves toward the river,
water folds over pockets
of walleye. Orange is girder
& rusted flange, citrine
in the Orr’s gemcase.
DETOUR. Milk crate.
The molten globe
on a glassblower’s rod.
Every morning the muscular
hum & hand-over-hand:
ropes tensing on the pier.
Orange is Japanese carp
beneath the tattoo needle.
Habaneros sweating
in their grocery bins.
French horns warming
on the south cathedral lawn.
Every morning flames rise
over columns sandblasted clean.
© Karen Rigby