A Toast To My Hometown

To you, Manhattan:
city of skyscrapers,
melting-pot borough
to the privileged and penniless,
the doormen and pigeons
to the East River,
High Line, the Hudson
and bridges
to your museums of everything,
Madison Square money
to Broadway, the Bowery,
Harlem and SoHo
to your vertical grandeur
with sides, east and west
to the endless insults,
honking and sirens
oh, the steady stench of filth!
to the bagels, bialys,
the hotdogs and hoagies
to you, Manhattan,
I raise my glass
to your subways
and tollbooths,
your turnpikes and ferries
all the routes you provide
for an easy escape