By: Grant Guy

the city i

the city
the steam of the city runs through my finger
& fills the breath i inhale in carnal partnership
of concrete & blood
of the noise & clamor
embraces like a lover can
the city
the city ii
the city knocks my hat off
letting me know it does not have my back
as it walks with me through the shadows of its street

i am in no hurry to escape its unknowns

while it gives me no solace or promises
It offers only what is cold & hot

it offers no conclusions or starts
it offers no handshakes or
promissory notes of life & death
It offers only what it is cold & hot

it holds out scents and odors
of the living & the dead
it stinks of sex & love
of anger & peace

it wallows in all that is human
in a web of concrete & steel

it sings our beauty it sings our sin

it offers only what it is cold & hot

it is my blood it inhales & exhales me
the city iii

the city is a jackhammer

the city does not care who i am
it dies not need me
it has millions of souls to worshiping it
like an angry rabid dogs at the foot of lucifer

it has a poetry of clashing atonal sirens
fights & carousing laughter & cursing
the police the fire department the emts
but you know you were there
it is our job to sit back & enjoy the ride
the city iv

it imprisons me the city

i am like ash falling
from the roof a skyscraper
the city v

my life is owned by the music of the city
it washes what is left of my bridgeless soul
& i comply with the customs it demand

the music an urban folk music plays out in the alleys
on the tenement stoops & uptown downtown
it is a fire music love supreme music underground music

the city has created a music just for me

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Grant Guy is a Canadian poet, writer and playwright.. He has over one hundred poems and short stories published in internationally. He has five books published: Open Fragments, On the Bright Side of Down, Blues for a Mustang, The Life and Lies of Calamity Jane and Bus Stop Bus Stop. He was the 2004 recipient of the MAC’s 2004 Award of Distinction and the 2017 recipient of the WAC Making A Difference Award.