“South Street Seaport – Financial District” – Photo by Suman and Sharmila

iron-rimmed wheels

drawn by iron-shod hooves

gave a clattering cadence

reverbing dull bells

ringing atonal peals

along ill-masoned lanes

of Belgian block cobbles

and dredged Venice stones

bilge-pitted from urine

of a hundred stout lads

crude ballast unshipped

for a nickel a ton

from heart-of-oak vessels

of mercantile Brits

singing Cockney crew lingo

with cargo commands

over heaps dropped in nets

upon creaking tarred wharves

Schermerhorn Dutch

gave out guttural barks

to the breaking breeze humming

through neatly reefed yards

slung up high-crossed on masts

overtowering docks

where a nautical polyglot

spilled its cacophony

up and down gangplanks East

Indiamen hove in place

with great bangs and hard crashes

that echoed across the wide

swift running current dividing

Manhattan from Brooklyn

from my forty-floored glass

looking down on the seaport

when sail-masted schooners

or frigates would moor

all the sounds of the centuries

rose up to reach me

transporting me back to

that wild newborn world

of rapscallion romance

and mean edged adventure

where men grunted glory

for merely surviving

another new day

all the time feeling wistful

that I had been born

too long after my time

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(Note: my office was on the 40th floor of the octagonal tower at enter of the photo)

(originally posted November 2013)