What Must Babies Think?

What must babies think,
As they wonder why their
Push pram rocket ship
Which on most days
thrusts them
Into the universe of
the fiery sky ball and
chatter filled park
Sits mothballed in the corner
Staring at the wall like
White-haired bench people
Who always seem so
Sad and forgotten?

What must dogs think
The Wal Mart greeters of the
Animal world
Who use the sign language
Of the excitable nose and tail
To communicate their
borderline insane love
for anything that moves
When they trot out first thing
In the morning like they’re in
competition at Westminster
Only to discover
A show of
silent concrete?

What must jets think
Who usually cannibalize people
Until their bellies are full
When the only in-flight meal
Is a flight crew
Two pilots
And 900 steerage ghosts
Who sit
Without hope or destiny
In the kind of
Quiet
That follows anyone
Who has ever walked
Away from a grave?

What must birds think
The cocky pigeons
The Blue-header vireo
Or the Yellow-Throated
Warbler
Who is used to the call
And response
Of the spontaneous whistler
Who peers below
With its inner binoculars
Which has a radar sense
For fractured bread crumbs
Only to discover
Serpentine trails of nothing
And no one?

What must a car think
As it’s spit from
the mouth of a subterranean garage
And discovers an alternate side of the
Street parking universe
Where virtually every other car
Sleeps like the homeless
Which once upon a time
Were fueled with dreams
And cherished
From the moment of their conception
Until they were finally delivered
Shiny and new
To the showroom
Ready to be swaddled and embraced?

And what must the wind think
which has given safe passage
Against its will
to barbaric terrorists
With thorny crowns
Just like the one that Jesus wore
That have forsaken lungs
And hearts
Leaving unclaimed bodies
Stripped of their nobility
To be crated and shipped
Like recalled manufactured parts
To the shores
Of Hart Island
Where the earth will swallow them whole
The tired,
the poor and
The huddled masses
that once upon a time
yearned to breathe free?