t h i s
c i t y
this city... ALIVE, but with the quiet decay of death clinging to it,
like a cancer ... like leperous flesh that refuses to slough off.
Traffic roars
overhead...a l l a r o u n d m e
~ pulsing like blood in my ears, & I roll back on the throttle.
...Faster & FASTer I ride, Engine SCREAMING thru the nite!
Leaning into the turns as I pass beneath overpass
after overpass
like so many ribs.
Surely this city must collapse beneath its own weight.
People ~ too god damned many people.
I roll back on the throttle again
... until the homeless blur into the shadows once more as I ride into the industrial district ...
Rolling past the abandoned buildings, nearly forgotten husks of their former selves.
Perhaps that's what it's like to grow olde.
Nobody here
but me
and the strays.
I ease up, coming to a stop.
There's a sharp turn up ahead, where the road glances off the tracks.
A
l o n gway off, I hear the lonely wail of the train,
slowly getting louder,
& LOUDer,
Feeling the PRESSURE of its passing
against my chest,
like an insistent lover, finally spent...
A waif of a cat darts across the tracks.
I smile and ride on ~
into this city.
She swallows me whole ... like everyone else....