And still the ripe fruit and the branch
Observe the sky begin to blanch
Without a cry, without a prayer,
With no betrayal of despair.
O Courage, could you not as well
Select a second place to dwell,
Not only in that golden tree
But in the frightened heart of me?
Passage taken from Act Three of “The Night of the Iguana” by Tennessee Williams, 1961.
Photo by Rick Stachura. An apparition on 30th Street in Astoria, Queens. October 8, 2019.