Looming—near and distant
and wreathed in plumes
of anxious Carl Sandburg fog,
ancient cathedral spires still festoon and designate
the otherwise-obscure skyline
of a conscious but still-slumbering Chicago;
inspiring no huge or otherworldly feelings now,
apart from, perhaps,
the dim comfort—of familiar forms
and exploitable structure. For here
and there in the gloom, they seem to form, adroitly,
certain patterns—beacons
in a labyrinthine prison, wherein still manage
to move each morning
the hopes and fears of its uncalled-upon millions;
fears
of remaining always
lost amid its arcane passageways—
hopes
of yet discovering,
through the tyranny of such a maze, their freedom.