Hanif Reads Toni

[Spoken Word: Hanif]
I'm crazy about this city
Daylight slants like a razor cutting the buildings in half
In the top half, I see looking faces, and it's not easy to tell which are people, which the work of stonemasons
Below is a shadow where any blasé thing takes place
Clarinets and lovemaking, fists and the voices of sorrowful women
A city like this one makes me dream tall and feel in on things. Hep, it's the bright steel rocking above the shade below that does it
When I look over strips of green grass lining the river
At church steeples and into the cream-and-copper halls of apartment buildings, I'm strong
Alone, yes, but top-notch and indestructible
Like the City in 1926 when all the wars are over and there will never be another one
The people down there in the shadow are happy about that
At last, at last, everything's ahead
The smart ones say so and people listening to them and reading what they write down agree
Here comes the new
Look out, there goes the sad stuff; the bad stuff
The things-nobody-could-help stuff
The way everybody was then and there
Forget that; history is over, you all, and everything's ahead at last
In halls and offices people are sitting around thinking future thoughts about projects and bridges and fast-clicking trains underneath
The A&P hires a colored clerk
Big-legged women with pink kitty tongues roll money into green tubes for later on
Then they laugh and put their arms around each other
Regular people corner thieves in alleys for quick retribution and, if he is stupid and has robbed wrong, thieves corner him too
Hoodlums hand out goodies, do their best to stay interesting, and since they are being watched for excitement, they pay attention to their clothes and the carving out of insults
Nobody wants to be an emergency at Harlem Hospital
But if the Negro surgeon is visiting, pride cuts down the pain And although the hair of the first class of colored nurses was declared unseemly for the official Bellevue nurse's cap
There are thirty-five of them now--all dedicated and superb in their profession
Nobody says it's pretty here; nobody says it's easy either
What it is is decisive, and if you pay attention to the street plans, all laid out, the City can't hurt you