from This World We Invented, Brick Books, 2015
City of departures.
***
City
of Everything
City of arrivals.
City of missed connections.
City of plate
glass windows shouldered in fog.
City of terminals
and interminable waits.
City of
Beefeater.
City of laptops
and mobile devices.
City of flux.
City of
escalators.
City of
crisscrossed time zones.
City of no time
to lose.
City of left-hand
turns down a staircase of shopping bags.
City of Gucci.
City of
umbrellas.
City of luggage.
City of “Excuse
me, can you tell me…?”
City of looping
echo.
City of
strollers.
City of
wheelchairs.
City of carry on
and carry off.
City of parabolic
laughter, 7.5 on the Richter scale.
City of
double-wear stay-in-place makeup.
City of blush.
City of Apple.
City of lithe
women in arching doorways.
City of legs.
City of
incubating disease.
City of extended
naps and early risers.
City of day.
City of ordinary
details, like the sun, repeating.
Flip-flops and
hideous toes, flip-flops and hideous toes.
City of
hangnails.
City of rot.
City of concrete.
City of stiff.
City of shine.
City of
cufflinks.
City of shirts
and business suits pressed into cardboard.
City of standby.
City of hurry up
and wait.
City of beeping
electric carts backing into the throng.
City of turbans
and burkas and Biotherm.
City of parasites
on toilet seats.
City of farts.
City of India,
Poland, Spain, France, Turkey, Japan, but mainly India.
City of credit
cards.
City of faulty
wiring.
City of Christmas
tchotchkes in October display cases.
City of
grandmothers in turtle necks.
City of
convergence.
City of
fragrance.
City of
chocolate.
City of paper.
City of glass,
chrome, lead; city of nickel.
City of neon,
marble, steel.
City of hard.
City of edge.
City of nerve.
City of trench
coats.
City of emergency
exits.
City of maps.
City of girls
going to Idaho.
City of lost in
the shuffle.
City of cloying
loudspeaker distortion.
City of fat.
City of
broom-pushers.
City of urinals.
City of
Starbucks.
City of
accelerating innovation.
City of hyper.
City of
connections.
City of stop, go,
move your ass.
City of
billboards.
City of blinking.
City of cancelled
reservations.
City of
complainers.
City of lineups.
City of corduroy,
denim, suede, leather and cotton.
City of canvas.
City of vinyl.
City of rubber.
City of stretch.
City of oversized
watches.
City of made in
China.
City of mustard
stains.
City of
buttonholes.
City of
unraveling hems.
City of dharma.
City of drama.
City of who among
us is dying of cancer?
City of c’mon
now, which one of us?
City of weakened
immunity.
City of abandon
hope ye who enter here.
City of night.
City of cooled
surfaces.
City of cobweb.
City of drift.
City of swirling
green gas.
City of border
patrols.
City of
passports.
City of fog.
***
Carolyn Marie Souaid is a writer, editor and teacher. She has toured her work across Canada, Europe and the U.S., and has been shortlisted for a number of literary awards including the A.M. Klein Prize and the Pat Lowther Memorial Award. Her videopoem, Blood is Blood, was a winner at the 2012 Zebra Poetry Film Festival in Berlin. Her most recent poetry collection, This World We Invented, was published by Brick Books in 2015. She has just completed a novel for which she was awarded a writing residency at the Banff Centre in 2013. .... about This World We Invented
Great poem! Really enjoyed "City of Everything"!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Stephen. It means a great deal when poets hear back on their work. You are the first to say anything about this poem. Merci!
DeleteThanks Stephen! It means a lot to me that you took the time to comment on this piece. It was fun to write...nothing like anything I have ever written before. I took notes on a 12-hour stopover at Heathrow Airport. It felt like being in a city!
ReplyDelete