Richard Louis Ray: City Poem, December 15th, 2013

City Poem, December 15^th, 2013

I

The city stomps and it chomps

and it asks you:

what do you want to eat,

what does it take to eat you,

what do you make

of the taste

of eating and being eaten?

After all this eating

and shitting

and watching where you step

and waking up God knows where,

what are you, what feel you,

whose load can you

lighten today?

Along the rooftops

and entryways

the aging latticework

and cornices

sag through the cobwebs

of my awareness

and I feel their weight

as though the lives

of the masons

and ironworkers

were falling down

through my shoulders,

pinning my feet

to the earth

where they turn

and lift my gaze up, up—

see what we left

for your enjoyment!

II

My awareness

where the sense

of ownership

passes

from

hand to hand

then

it dissolves

as it should

but

be wary of shoulds

they come

from

the heart

for

the throat.