Is it no more than an eyehole
On the outside scene
Making everything
-The snow, the runaway dog,
The boys brawling and the car
Skidding against the tree-
Content to be contained
Within a reasonable frame?
Or could it be
A casement dividing
A real observer from a view
Of untrammeled possibility,
Its pane connecting
A man in a room in
Steam heat and a battered chair
With his future
Which he could not see
Were it not there?
Perhaps it’s the lens that allows
Errant swifts and swallows
In a downward swoop
Of their tumbling flight
To glimpse the man waiting
For the future to happen-
While he’s caged in time
They’re free to look in,
And its gift is insight.
~Daniel G. Hoffman, ‘Window’ (1972)
photo: 41.878605, -87.640283: to arrive or depart on a train in such a grand station as this is to travel well, looking up, a particular view of untrammeled possibility, from 2012, ‘some reason this one makes me think of Hollywood Squares or a similar cheesy old-school television game show.