Net Light

Poised on a bridge, streetlights

on either shore, a man puts

a saxophone to his lips, coins

in an upturned cap, and a carousel

in a piazza begins to turn:

where are the gates to paradise?

A woman leans over an outstretched

paper cup — leather workers sew

under lamps: a belt, wallet, purse — 

leather dyed maroon, beige, black — 

workers from Seoul, Lagos, Singapore — 

a fresco on a church wall depicts

the death of a saint: a friar raises

both hands in the air — on an airplane,

a clot forms in a woman’s leg

and starts to travel toward her heart — 

a string of notes riffles the water;

and, as the clot lodges, at a market

near lapping waves, men unload

sardines in a burst of argentine light.