a girl who doesn't know any better

Could you even name it,
that longing—which suddenly seems
to rule these streets,

as if the underlying principle
of the city had been drawn up
from beneath the pavement

by a girl who doesn't know
any better than to insist
on the force of her wish

to look into the gaze which seems
to go on steadily coming toward her
though of course it isn't moving at all.

[Mark Doty {1953- }, from 'Manhattan: Luminism' in Source]