Summer in the City

I always preferred the summer in the city
because the hum of air conditioners, faint
in the background calmed me down. Buses
smelt diesel and dank with the sweat
of a thousand passengers who were clinging
to the seats by naked legs.

there was something depleted about the pavement,
the cracks no longer had water to soak-
only the sun remained and it bounced back to the sky;
relieved, I thought- if the pavement were a black hole sucking
up the sun, then it would be a

disaster seemed millions of miles away.
fresh industrial fumes promenaded
to my nose, potent and a memento
suggesting, that perhaps I was still alive
and fresh country air, untouched, was inferior
to those with leaded limbs because it
whispered less than even nothing;
it was no match to the city’s
mechanical reminder of mechanical life.

-Dakota 


Thank you for your contribution, beautiful sister,
BB & IQ