The Midsummer Blackout (1977)

The City went out like a candle’s light

Upon a very warm midsummer night;

Its jewels of a sudden ceased to gleam

As if we were together in one dream.

The City skyline gave a dimmer view 

Of Central Park along Fifth Avenue;

And not a glimmer was amid the dark

While on that situation we’d remark:

The City suddenly became blacked out

& made us wonder what's it all about?

The traffic was quite light for after all,

The city seemed under its spell to fall.

Until somebody made us turn around:
A tapping of a cane upon the ground

Was of a man who hadn't lost his way;

Night being (for him) similar to day.

So my companion turned to say to me,

“He has the best of it tonight we see—

For him—it is no different than before

& that is what his cane is really for:

“If we go back the way it was we came

It’s altered and it cannot be the same."

“Of course, it cannot be the same for us

B'coz of what it is the darkness does:

“Tonight a spell of darkness is imposed

If our eyes tomorrow aren’t closed;

As we expect tomorrow we won't grope:

At very least it is as we would hope.

“Despite all we may say that’s idle talk

A blindman in the darkness has to walk.”

As by the tapping of a blindman’s cane,

Together we'd gone down that city lane.