At Yonkers

by Marion Brown

From Lake Tear of the Clouds, the stream
thickens to a river, nods to Albany and
the old capital, Kingston, gathering itself
toward heavy populations up ahead.

Its bank is sutured with railroad ties
and leavings. Up and down, the river
carries loads: heating oil and jet fuel,
girders and containers heaped

with excavators and tractors to heave
the land. When will the land lie?
Banks that rise from the waterline
bear the tracks on seamed arms,

warehouses and junkyards, clapboard
homes of those who work. The Hudson butts
Yonkers, its carpet mills, elevator works
and sugar refinery closed; bricks set

against hills arch like dinosaur ribs,
articulate, grim. Men and women who live
in cratered streets take jobs in hospitals
and nursing homes and smell piss all day

instead of acid fumes or caramelized sugar.
So the river skims, with sightless eyes,
the undersides of bridges, the projects
and left-over hopes of women and men

who came to make lives. Some moved on.
Others stayed, in mansion or high-rise
or shack, staring at the river that barges
their trash to sea. Beyond, river broadens

to harbor, harbor opens to ocean
where mementos of cliff dwellers bob
and float, messages flung from heaped
barges. Tugboats nudge them, “Move along.”

Commentary

“At Yonkers,” revised slightly from the version originally published in the Spring 2021 edition of Gyroscope Review, is a tribute to the river that arises in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State and empties into the Hudson Canyon of the Atlantic—hardworking, like so many of the residents on its shores.

Marion Brown’s two poetry collections, TASTED and THE MORNING AFTER SUMMER, were published by Finishing Line Press. She lives in Yonkers. TIDE TABLE, her first full-length book of poems, will be published by Broadstone Books in 2027. Her website is marionbrownpoet.com. This is her first poem to be published in The Ledger, following her poetry commentary in March. Marion has done readings of her work at The Hudson Valley Writers Center. Learn more about the Hudson Valley Writers center here.