SPUYTEN DUYVIL


No one wants to 
swim where the
Bronx ends and
Manhattan begins,
just beyond 
Marble Hill,
where the IRT line
rumbles across 
its river tracks,
where the Harlem
Ship Canal slams
into the Hudson,
here where the Half-
Moon once moored,
and a very high 
bridge makes even
regular commuters 
think twice, where 
the waters churn and 
the tides rip, here at 
Spuyten Duyvil where 
long ago a Dutch hero, 
they say, didn't wait 
for the ferry, but tried 
to cross "in spite of the 
devil" to warn of an 
earlier attack on the 
great city.


New York City
August 2004