Unending rows of stone and glass and light
Unfold with fractal rhythm. Pulsing hard,
Vast pulmonary streets flood red at night
With metal cells that creep along the marred
Scar-tissue of a swollen city-scape.
The faint, returning streams resemble veins
Whose drained, polluted cargo can't escape
No matter where it rests. Through white-lit lanes,
The gasping passengers seek out the heart
And lungs of urban ambiguity:
Arrhythmic and collapsed, the organs part
Below them. Boundless continuity,
Endemic through the dense metropolis,
Repeats across a displaced wilderness.
3 comments:
Started this on the airplane last night after flying into LAX. Finished it rather quickly but I think it works well enough. I'm in debt to myself to the tune of twenty-five sonnets. The Christmas break can't come soon enough. If I can halve that hole, I'll be pleased.
Wonderful poetic tribute to the city.
Remembering what the guides had told us on entering the ruins of Decapolis regarding that first entryway being called the "cardo" referencing the cardiovascular system, this only too beautifully presents that very image excellently. The sonnet here seems the apt little voice for such, its perfect imagery poignantly conveying the sensations of that reality. Frankly, the city tends to seem stifling, killing something elsewise alive.
Superb. I really like it.
Hopefully your holiday will set the pen free to blythely fulfill all the challenge's heart dreams of covering. Glad to see yet another sonnet. Keep it up!
This one especially struck me as an immoral blot on nature. I am no cityphobe, but watching Los Angeles from above, seeing it stretch off into the horizon in all directions, gave me the impression of a vast scab on the landscape - like a horror "the world has turned to city" scene in a sci-fi movie. Thanks for reading it. I like your insight about Decapolis and its cardo. My fear was that the comparison would be too trite, too obvious, but my strained effort to turn this towards concrete snowflakes failed, so I reverted to my original impulse.
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