City Trip

 

I have walked the streets at night alone.

I have seen the sights and heard the sounds of the city

Naked under the street lamps with all her secrets exposed.

I have seen her homeless,

Crouched and cold under cardboard boxes

And her wounded, wandering the alleyways

With dull eyes and beaten brows.

I have seen her neons flashing with urgency,

Bidding their welcomes to corner bars and pool halls,

Her w****s and pushers pooling like tears

On corners with payphones and porches of crackbarns.

I have seen her weep for her children

And heard her whisper of better days.

 

I have walked the streets at night alone.

I have seen the sights and heard the sounds of the city

Soft under silver wisps of moonlight and gossamer mist.

I have seen her sidewalks,

Concrete and colorless, crying out

To her blind businessmen decked in neckties and briefcases,

Trapped in their world of gray and green.

I have seen her mourning in winters silence

Our futile searches and our forgotten dreams.

I have seen her standing high above it all,

And all alone

In her brick, and steel, and stone.

Reviews

[C. Harter Amos]

I read the poem before reading your description of it and looked at it two ways, and then went back and read it again. Almost mystical and full of well chosen beautiful words like "silver wisps of moonlight and gossamer mist" and "winters mourning in silence for our futile searches and our forgotten dreams". I came away from the poem with a love and respect for how you view your city. Really pretty poem and well written. - Mimi.