DAUGHTER OF THE CITY

I feel the street in my veins

avenues
...............highways
..............................alleyways
..............................................boulevards

roads without stop signs or lights or signals
................................................live within me

circling the bewildering labyrinths of my being
noises loudly echo in every corner
each step reverberates like a hand banging on a drum
blasting horns demanding others to move out of the way
shots giving a farewell to their reasons of hate
screams hiding inside a desperate bark

daughter of the city
.............................citizen of hell
..................................................resident of purgatory

I am a skyscraper inhabited by urgency,
a map of nameless streets,
only the suicidal wind dares to speed
through my curves full of danger signs.

Hours merge without boundaries with the new day;
my anxious yearning open for business twenty-four hours
without ever finding peace and quiet
inside the insistent beating of my sleepless heart.


by JVP