When your birthday was over the rain began.
Water floated on the sidewalks. The shuttle bus
didn’t come and the next one was full
and the next one not in service.
Queens on a workweek night.
At Bedford-Nostrand, the countdown clock
tried my sense of time.
Forty is an auspicious number.
I never met your mother.
The rats went about their business as usual
and I wondered if you were enjoying
a prolonged birthday in the arms of a queen,
where you live now in this city that can feel small,
if you were happy, if you ever think about me.