You wallow in the ceaseless sounds
Of the sirens & the impatient honking
Of the taxi drivers.

Diminutive –
You’re carried by the current
Of the busy sidewalk.

Melting
Into the mundane thrum
Of the city,

Like the slice of American
Pressed between the fatty
Layers on the BEC.

Once your excitement
For the bustling streets
Settles,

You begin to notice
the way the greyness of the sky
Reflects in the sea of passing-by-faces –

How easily they find comfort
Underneath their blinding umbrellas
On a rainy morning.

And once you learn the difference
Between the “uptown” & “downtown”
Signs in the subway,

It all becomes
A little
More
Bearable.

The homeless man bathing
In the puddle of Union sq Park
Doesn’t strike you as something crazy anymore.

You don’t wrinkle your nose
Watching the rats drag a slice of stale pizza
Into their underground kingdom

While you wait for the forever-delayed train --
Too sticky and cold in the summer,
Too suffocating and hot in the winter.

Or at the sillage of acrid fumes
of the black garbage mountains –
the city’s staple fragrance.

The pigeons hopelessly hop around,
Some, on just one good leg, to pick out what’s left
Of the Hershey’s candy bar wrap--

New York City birds
Have a taste
Like no other.

And when you try to escape it
You find yourself back here again,
Fettered to this rhythm

The city dances to,
Unfolding,
Every corner you turn

It reveals a little bit more,
In its crooked mirrors,
You see what you’ve become --