Return From Mohegan Poem by Ludvig Von Himmelstein

there was a dank smell
when returning from Mohegan
to the tenement in the Bronx
summer wasn't yet over
and steam rose from the sidewalks
to offer me a stunted aroma
as a fitting substitute
for sweet pine, spruce and oak
and I could not forgive
the pavement for lacking judgement
for its crude statement of equivalence
leaving no doubt who would
govern the next ten months
in its very first offered scent