Incarceration

City Lights are a night light

Thru my window here in the city,

And tho I sleep sound

All I dream about is her;

The personification of New York.

Not exactly the Statue of Liberty.

She doesn't liberate.

She incarcerates me

In her smoky blue eyes

As she takes another puff.

Her red hair smokes

And burns if it's touched.

But that doesn't stop me.

Some may call it love.

I call it incarceration.

Raindrops on the windshield

Blurs city lights into a cartoon.

I see people of all shapes, sizes, and colors

Through those fallen raindrop tunes.

Hands-on the wheel

Like hands on a clock,

Foot on the petal

Trying to speed time up.

Thinking that I'm dreaming

But not knowing about what.

I honk the horn, again and again,

But I never wake up.

Incarceration.

The rain stops,

But the wind keeps blowing

Hard.

I amble down the sidewalk.,

Right neath a tree; an umbrella,

As the wind blows thru its leaves,

Like running fingers thru knotty hair,

The rain-drops again briefly.

Drenching me completely.

I shake my head, mad,

But I laugh instead.

Incarceration.

The paint is so fresh

Her eyes are still wet,

And the red dye hasn't faded

Despite all the wind

Blowing through it.

Her top is sparkling

Like a-NYC building

Tucked in her apple bottom jeans,

Got my head spinning.

Let me taste those smoky lips.

Let me bite that apple

On bended knee,

Popping the question,

Popping the ring

Out of a little black box,

Like Mr. Las Vegas

With tricks up my sleeves.

You look at me

Like I ain't got a shot,

Then you shoot me down.

But I'm still in love.

Incarceration.

So I left on the next flight to Vegas

Leaving New York, she's like its

Personification.

I say "Oh well."

But the voice in my head says,

"Pray do tell."

He calls it love.

I call it incarceration.

Sep 15, 16-17, 2020

Author's Note

What made reading this worthwhile for you??

reaL

Reviews

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Everything made this worthwhile...the personification of NYC...the analogy to the red haired woman the speaker is with...she is both who she is and the city.
Being from the Bronx I especially appreciate this...the blaring horns, the statue we drove by so many times...the lights...the one tree on each block...I spent my summers up in Vermont and grew to hate
living in the city...it did feel like a prison. When my dad said we were moving to Illinois, I said..."what's that? well it must be better than this"-
I did feel incarcerated...I wanted country, farms, cows...anything but hopscotch on the hot pavement.
Thank you for this journey, Cyprian.
j.

[Rose]

Wow. These metaphors are amazing! I absolutely love how creative this was! To me, what made this worthwhile was how the words kept coming, soft and elegant and with such lovely detail! I absolutely loved this! Thank you so much! ❤️

[Pete]

this is freaking awesome! in a strange way, incarcertaion can be liberating. i could spend such a long time pondering these deep words. thanks for sharing. love it ... :)

[Vertigo Cat1111]

Wow. What made this worthwhile for me was the way you actually felt you were in the city and the way you could feel that lonely kind of sadness and longing. The dreamy vibe it gave off felt like a song. The rhyming is so beautiful and so is the imagery. I really wonder how you put this atmosphere together so perfectly, and it really does feel like I just read a poem or a line out of a book. I'm glad I read this because it's proof that writing can have as much imagination and imagery than a movie or simple picture. I honestly think more, and you deliver that wonderfully here.

I see people of all shapes, sizes, and colors
Through those fallen raindrop tunes.

Those lines are one of the ones that truly pull this all off for me. The mention of all the colors and all the things around helped to set the mood even more. I loved this, please keep writing!

[emmajoy]

'Foot on the petal - Trying to speed time up. - Thinking that I'm dreaming - But not knowing about what - I honk the horn, again and again, - But I never wake up. = Incarceration. '

Reading this poem was like hearing a song.. blues perhaps, rhythm slow, repetitive. The words of course, make super fine lyrics. I don't know your part of the world.. but you certainly created the atmosphere so that i understood what it represents, meant for and to you. I live in the English countryside, will visit cities for this/that reason, but after a few hours I need to leave! Memories galore and some wonderful, but ... Of course, there's mention of the woman, which is so cleverly done, colours and mood of her compared so finely in certain places. However, truth is, I understood that word, incarceration.

[Neville]

well crafted and got my foot tapping so ya did .... I thoroughly enjoyed this introduction to your poetry Cyprian :)

[Lydia Shutter]

Well, love can be all encompassing. It can make you feel like you are chained in place.....but in a good way. There's no way out, but if it is love, you want to stay where you are and enjoy the incarceration! I do have one small edit..."She incarnates me" I think you meant, "she incarcerates me". Well written, Cyprian. Could be a love song. Lydi**

[S.zaynab.kamoonpury]

Wow What made this so worthwhile is how it is a modern city life poem with your super muse , how you paint the scenes and goings on, love can be an incarceration as I too have written poems to that connotation.
It's superly fantastic how you capture so much in short lines, I was admiring the amble line, people of all shapes and sizes, and how a lass got yer head spinning, ooh romantic and then popping the question then the ring yay wow. Kudos!! Keep entertaining us always.

[X]

Simply sumptuous! The tone, the pace, the passion each lead to the next line with intention--all full of alluring images---I didn't want it to stop! Beautifully penned!