[On the Vast Highway]

On the vast highway

where death streams cheerfully

in the sunlight and the enormous spans

cast their 4 o’clock suspensions

over the harbor I am told

of the infidelities of the Puerto Ricans

and the meanness of the Jews

by an Irish cab driver

it is good that there are so many kinds of us

so death can choose

and even perhaps prefer

he who casts the first shadow of the day

on those who are trying to live till dark

Frank O’Hara 1960