Paterson City Hall

Hard by the live chicken market
sits a lumpish copy
of the Lyon city hall.
It’s sidewalk-side toilets
for a passerby’s needs
have white entrance steps
marred with grime and pee.
For the upstairs bathrooms
you have to be somebody
to see varnished wood, medallions,
bronze banisters, gilded marquetry
and the window-ledge tomes
containing written-up lives
against the light held at bay
by unwashed panes.