So I've been MIA the last few couple weeks because I've been busy packing up five years of my life in preparation of moving into my own apartment. EEK! It's all very exciting, and I wish I could write in detail about it all. But honestly, I just don't have the time as of late. However, I promise to fill you all in with all the specifics once things calm down and I get all settled!
Until then, please "enjoy" a poem I wrote when I first moved to NYC (after being on Long Island for grad school), roughly 10 years ago. Looks like I was absolutely shell-shocked and about to go postal, but I'm so glad I gave the city a chance. Because honestly, I would have missed out on so much living if I had left it all behind...
CITY
Eyes down at my feet
Avoiding contact with the streets
of this city--
this state of disillusion
that keeps me penned in
between buses barreling toward
green lights, the heinous honks
of cabbies that cradle commuters
at 9 a.m.
It's too early for this
craziness.
I miss the way I used to saunter slowly
past mom and pop stores,
the dock where I used to ignore
the clock and eat ice cream
out of the carton as the
moon glittered off the water,
his hand in mine.
Now it's just crowded cars,
cursing kids on their way
to school.
Head phones, cell phones,
corporate drones.
Millions and millions of us--
cramped together and
alone
in the city.
Wondering how we all got here
and how the hell we're going to get out.
The noise is louder than
last week's traffic jam.
I am
going to find my way--
and I will breathe in this
smog and exhale
the clean, crisp air
of my youth that's tied
up in willow trees
and bumble bees
and summer breeze.
I will look up in this
city's sky
and find a way
to make it
quiet.
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