USNS Comfort Arrives in New York Harbor

A woman dressed in green: her layered roots
dig deep beneath the harbor. Her robes are flutes
of bronze to ocean winds. A mother’s face
inclines above this fever-stricken place
to hear the clamor and the stifled mute.

Silence swallows yesterday’s pursuits,
the hustling crowds in tailored hustler suits,
the taxi horns, the never-ending race.
A woman dressed in green

stands tall and sorrowful, but resolute.
On the horizon, a ship comes into view.
Help arrives: a sisterly embrace
between a statue and a messenger of grace.
This ship, a woman clad in white, salutes
a woman dressed in green.

Available! High-Voltage Lines, Knocking from Inside