new to Chicago
(2015 baseball edition)
Janet Kuypers
1997 poem, edited 4/26/15
I’m still new to this city
I know, I know, I’ve been here for years
but I haven’t gone to a Cubs game in years,
I haven’t been to a White Sox game in even longer...
and I haven’t gone to the Sears Tower Observatory
since my Junior Prom
but when I walk by the First Chicago building —
that building downtown, right in the center of the Loop,
with beams along the sides
sloping up, parabolic pillars curving up to the sky
when I walk by the First Chicago building
I walk up along the side
and lean up against one of the sloping pillars
press my body against the cold concrete
feel the cold against my chin, my breasts, by thighs
and look up along the curve, stretching up towards the sky
you know, these pillars look like race tracks
and I could see something come rushing down that curve
a matchbox car, a race car
a marble, a baseball, a bowling ball
a two-ton weight
I see the speed, the power, and it
almost makes me afraid to look up
but every time I walk by the First Chicago building
I do the same thing, I do this little ritual
and it feels like the first time
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