Denise Levertov: "February Evening in New York"

As the stores close, a winter light
      opens air to iris blue,
      glint of frost through the smoke
      grains of mica, salt of the sidewalk.
As the buildings close, released autonomous
      feet pattern the streets
      in hurry and stroll; balloon heads
      drift and dive above them; the bodies
      aren't really there.
As the lights brighten, as the sky darkens,
      a woman with crooked heels says to another woman
      while they step along at a fair pace,
      "You know, I'm telling you, what I love best
      is life. I love life! Even if I ever get
      to be old and wheezy—or limp! You know?
      Limping along?—I'd still ... " Out of hearing.
To the multiple disordered tones
      of gears changing, a dance
      to the compass points, out, four-way river.
      Prospect of sky
      wedged into avenues, left at the ends of streets,
      west sky, east sky: more life tonight! A range
      of open time at winter's outskirts. 

"February Evening in New York" by Denise Levertov, from Collected Earlier Poems 1940-1960. © New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1979.

Photography credit: "Night Street, NYC," by Ocean Morisset Photography (originally black and white).