Poem: The City

 

The City

 

the city, that sweltering current,

it cut vogues and idols

out of flows of commotion

in anxious lives.

 

so many scents of the lonely,

commingled with sweat.

 

busy, petty, in twittery herds

they thickened into a fleshy putty:

 

pliant cheeks and brows,

surgical noses, lubricious lips.

 

rivers of offered jugulars

where vendors checked for throbs--

of fascination, of revulsion,

of heart-drained lust.

 

it all lied.  one big liar,

a sorcery that savored a false ingredient,

gulped the rest.

 

each face a piece of a gargantuan puzzle,

each profile a tired hatchet,

nicked by truth, dented by love,

mauled by war.

 

all of it fugitive

from an inevitable destiny.

 

the city,

its people were as schooled as minnows,

flashing false smiles to scatter,

 

only to amass once more,

doomed, yet again,

to smother their unruly scars.

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