_30. The City and the Ghibli Museum

I lost my shoes in Tokyo
not to thieves or flood but accident,
a row of shoes by the door and someone took mine.
He left the same pair in their place
but newer
I walked around that mechanized city all day
on heels so white they fluoresced,
Shinjuku to Ginsa glowing like the neon
and diodes on buildingsides
Kuramae to Adhihabara for curry and lhassi
in subway and out
wondering where the crowds are,
no white-gloved men pushing bodies
into trains, just a few faces as blank
as the faces on any subway anywhere.
But everywhere the promise of
a good pair of shoes (go as far as you can)
and god-like machines (go further),
all the way out to Mitaka to find
the promise kept in reels of film
and strobelit zoetropes,
an enlightened robot raising his hands
to reach impulsively
at a spinning exultation of bluebirds.