On the railroad station platforms
Where the daydreaming commuters wait,
Carried off each by his own daydream
Of snow covered railroad station platforms,
Championship football games,
Music, naked statues, silence

One follows one's own daydream,
And in it, the railroad trains begin to travel west,
And off to the west, across the river,
Over the expanses of bridges
And under the lengths of tunnels

The city they are going to sparkles in the river,
Its lights glittering like so many faces, so many voices,
Like so many people walking along the boulevards
Or talking up in the rooms of little apartments
Under the gargoyles of the townhouses
That seem like the dreams of the people inside them,

And we, in our dreams, forget who we were
And why we came here and where we came from,
And we walk arm in arm with people going to concerts,
Art museums, sidewalk cafes, theatres,
Looking up at the white spires of St. Patrick's Cathedral,
Or the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center,
Where the skaters skate into their pirouettes