People in the speedboats

Pity the people ashore,

And on the shore people

Feel sometimes sorry for

Citizens further inland.

They in turn regret

The life that city people

Live in a summer's heat.

In the city late in summer

Pity is measured by

Mercury in one borough

A little lower than high

Six blocks away or seven,

Or near the river at night.

Notice the difference

Of a story more in height,

Cooler than in the papers,

With us more air.

But people east of midtown

Can hardly care

How hot it is for someone

Not quite afloat,

Nor for the engined people

In the mahogany boat

Faster over the lakewater

Than they wish.

Think down green down

Down deep where fish

Move among the waving

Long green old

Dark underwater forests

Cold cold.