Thursday, April 20, 2017

"city" by Ross Balcom, Frequent Contributor

city

i.
the alleys
disgorge their shadows

dirty hands
paw my genitals

the city's
dishonored guest

I seek
my detriment and

doom

suckling rats
at my non-bosom

wet nurse
to the void

I have no milk
to nourish them

only this trickle
of polluted

song

ii.
Kill me, city
squash me like
the merest bug

Kill me, city
and sweep me under
your cement rug

iii.
Postscript

My doom was withheld;
I lived to write about the city.

The rat-children I suckled
are all dead.

I pray the city
will be swallowed forever

by its own shadows.

--Ross Balcom


Poet's Notes: I wish to dedicate this poem to American writer H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937), whose eloquent loathing of megalopolitan New York has always moved me.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.