Cities

I'm working on a major work on cities
To tell people they are all the same,
                                 and different--

That we live through these cities
To transform all our personal cities
Into an Ideal City,
The ideal remnants of our experiences,
Our loving goodbyes to this world.

To know cities we must go off somewhere
A year, two years, maybe five,
Then come back. Go off to a desert,
To the top of a mountain somewhere
And live with the eagles' "Screeeeeeee"
In the high clouds,

Then come back and see
The buildings reaching clouds,
Crying out loud to the clouds
And see how from far off
They're perfect abstract sculptures,

Monuments of intellect soaring,
Needlespires toward God,

And from close up
They become citadels of tears,
Penthouses of pent-up emotion,
And how a million people
Have cried in the streets below.

I don't hate these cities,
I love them, I admire them
As I do giant beasts in photographs,
In zoos, in the wild,
But I approach them with caution.

 

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