SETTING DREAMS

In his rare idle moments Svevo,

Assistant to the God of Penn Station,

Has been setting the god’s dreams

To music. (The God of Penn Station

Never sleeps; Svevo dreams for him).

The ghosts who have been waiting

For the 7:43 B & O Express to Chicago

Since October 1, 1926 have begun

To sing some of the catchier tunes.

This unnerves the more sensitive

Nowaday trainmen and commuters.

PENN STATION DREAMS

The God of Penn Station has next to no budget

And cannot afford much panoply. He gets catalogs

Offering to customize and sell entire pantheons

Which he seldom reads. Svevo, his assistant,

Carefully files them all against the unlikely day

When the God of Penn Station grows rich.

Since the Station never quite closes its god

Feels it would be improper in him to sleep.

Svevo sleeps for him though, and has his dreams

Writing down each one and sometimes repeating them

When the two of them and Fevrier, who does odd jobs,

Patrol the station around five in the morning.

“You dreamt your mother was a sewing machine;

She seemed happy and asked about you.

You dreamt you and the Gods of the Colosseum

Spent the night in a Roman karaoke bar

Where you sang Rodolfo’s last aria from La Boheme.”

“How was I?” “No Pavarotti, but not terrible.”

GPS

                             I

When the greater gods pass through
They usually ignore the God of Penn Station
Remembering when he was the Spirit of Ronkonkoma
Until he fell asleep on the 7:56 limited express.
Hebe, though, tops off his beer as she drifts by.

                             II

The God of Penn Station received a delegation
Of nervous rats in his office on Platform 17
Under the stairs to Seventh Avenue.
Is it true, they asked, that you have advertised
For a coyote? Are we and the pigeons not enough?
Coyotes, said the God of Penn Station,
Are very hot right now, and their howls
Will keep drowsy high school girls alert
While they wait for the 2:06 back to Little Falls.