What Titanic floods came to carve
the massive canyons of New York
clasped on its ancient, sturdy hills
and what force let the sea surge so close
and deeper into all its abrased soil?
There, the city’s skyscrapers pile on
litanies of new towering Babylons.
or is it perhaps Babyl, Babel, Babilu,
or even—in its later Turkic form—
another hut of Baba Yaga’s twirling
on a chicken’s leg—cheeky and ready
in waiting for a hero or a lass to hop?
Otherwise, the earthly city’s spiky teeth
will gnash at the gods till nothing is left—
