City in All Directions

Everywhere I look I see city in all directions
that sprawls and curves
in space and time like a
giant worm that winds around the
ephemeral lives and
devours everything in sight.

It’s the noise though that really incubates
in the recesses of the mind
in its corners and crevices
impossible to clean,
where the dirt builds up and buoys the slightest hope
that loneliness is temporary surrounded
by so many nameless faces
plastered, punctured, beaten, and trodden
in the belligerent city.

In all directions I see city,
a living mass of laborers and criminals,
of squealing children, and defenseless babies with flies on their eyes,
of indefatigable ants, squirming rats, and bacteria-dropping seagulls
grappling for food
sulkily sleeping and
waking
in a daze from day to day
in the city, the noisy, gritty city.

Life is an unexpected find among the concrete
bricks that seemingly shut out the
air necessary for sustainable life
bitterly reserved
for the writhing primates
whimpering as cold
wind rips through the alleys
piled with weathered cardboard, metal boxes, aluminum cylinders,
feces and soot,
as the cement cracks
in the soiled, truculent city.