Colors of Emptiness

three men and a maroon gondola
one man inside hooking up
yellow tractor parts
taken by a jitney and a
set of silvery wires
nothing else is moving
green water and a high blue sky
white nimbus clouds
over the brown pinole hills
green and red container ship at anchor
two tankers, long black and redlined
both anchored
yellow cleat tracks
lifted from the gondola by
the short silvery wires
nothing else is moving
only the driver on the jitney
and the man in the gondola
as the other man unhooks the tractor parts
near the orange flat-rack
near red straddlers gathering rust
outside an aluminum shed
rows of black corrosive drums
red labeled
under tall white poles with cluster lights
orange and black gantry cranes at pier 80
black traveler cranes at the container yard
white cranes at seventh street
nothing is moving
no red and white tour boat under the bridge
one gray seagull
on a piling
motionless
three men and a jitney
sorting parts from a
gondola.

:: George Benet, in Going for Coffee (1981)