Yellow Cabs
by Rosalie Calabrese
as set to music by Leonard Lehrman, op. 162
Copyright 2003


Like grounded neon whales,
Schools of yellow cabs
With dark, soft-cushioned bellies
Bearing dreams of warm caresses
Swim along the rain-swept street
While I stand stranded underneath
A leaky hotel awning,
Watching one off-duty driver
Stop for someone else;
Madly waving a soggy Playbill,
My prayers and curses intermingle
As I slosh through sooty puddles
And sound the urban war-cry...
Taxi!