You look down and wonder what I am.  
I am the Iron Ganges, the man-made River Styx.  
Eight hundred and forty-two miles long!  
I am the tool that transcends the maker.  
I rise above you and sink beneath you  
but I am never at your feet.  
You peer along me to imagine your future  
or calculate when you’ll get to work.  

You blame me for your problems 
but I squeeaal back with delight.  
You think you can replace me  
but I am always the same,  
always shifting beneath your feet.  

You think I have no life, but I screeeaach opera day and night! 
I give off sparks for my little friends to dance across me in the firelight.  
You hear me even when you think you don’t.  
I expand and contract like your lungs,  
and there is nowhere for me to fall

I frame your detritus for re-consideration.  
Musicians serenade me, lovers kiss in front of me,  
and old men tell me their stories.  
Occasionally one of you will throw yourselves upon me, 
trying to merge into my blankness, but that cannot be done.  

I am as steady and as demanding as the ocean.  
Year from now they’ll dig me up and know just what I did.  
What about you?  

You hover above me like angels in the clouds.  
You rush past me, looking at your phones 
and bumping into each other,  
in a giant, frenzied whirl.  
You could at least say “Hi.”  

I cannot understand your freedom,  
nor what it is like to have two feelings at once,  
nor live knowing you will die soon.  
I wonder where each of you are going 
and what will become of you.  

I wish I could follow you, at least for a day.  
You are the question that leaves me guessing.  
If time is long enough maybe we will switch places, again.  
Until then, you remain my mighty, muddy, mirror.  

Michael Chavez Reilly grew up in downtown NYC and attended Stuyvesant High School. A lifelong learner, he completed his BA in Political Science at The University of Chicago, a master’s in Latin American studies at Stanford, and a doctorate at NYU, where he studied Educational Sociology. Michael spent almost a decade teaching at the secondary level in Boston and Westport, CT, and later worked for the American Museum of Natural History evaluating science education programs in NYC schools. 
 
With an ardent passion for nature, New York City culture, and community-building, Michael Chavez Reilly enjoyed writing poetry in his spare time. Diagnosed with ALS in August 2019, he touched many lives with his warmth, intelligence, and generous spirit. A beloved son, brother, uncle, and friend, Michael, passed away on November 27, 2023, at the age of 56.