This city
this city corrodes me
fills up my empty cells with wilderness
grasps through my straw pores with hungry gasps
gulps through the seasalt sky like ancient endless wonder.
this city does nothing for me.
follows me down the dark and mindless alleys of the evening
curtsies at the close of day and crumbles through soft silk-like patterns of society
this city is hungry.
this city does not know where it belongs. this city aches and gnaws and munches and tries to hide
behind its own minute breathless history
this city squanders the light with the fumes of exhaust
this city swells like a rubberized tooth under the pressure of the harbour
always begging always begging to come closer
to bridge the gap between here and there, shore and sea, sand and stone and city and reality.
this city does not slide but steals
saunters and surrenders to the demands of fangs and tigers
this city has carried me
through crushed long hands and wide open mouths
inside of thirst and outside of fear
this city has birthed me and sent me for miles
flapping and flapping and finally flying
just in time for me to leave.
say goodbye little city you’re only a dream
and I’m only a visitor passing through the streams
This city is a memory now.
one of the hundreds of cities I am.
Lauren Suchenski ’s poetry has appeared in Picaroon Poetry, Red Fez, Stoneboat Literary Magazine, Vine Leaves Literary Journal and Dark Matter Journal. Lauren has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and teaches young children as a Waldorf educator. Lauren remains an avid poet, ballet dancer, actress, photographer, painter and mother.
Ira Joel Haber was born and lives in Brooklyn. He is a sculptor, painter, writer, book dealer,photographer and teacher. His work has been seen in numerous group shows bothin the USA and Europe and he has had 9 one man shows including several retrospectives of his sculpture. His work is in the collections of The Whitney Museum Of American Art, New York University, The Guggenheim Museum, The Hirshhorn Museum,The Albright-Knox Art Gallery & The Allen Memorial Art Museum. Since 2006 His paintings, drawings, photographs and collages have been published in over 230 on line and print magazines. He has received three National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, two Pollock-Krasner grants, the Adolph Gottlieb Foundation grant and, in 2010, he received a grant from Artists’ Fellowship Inc. He currently teaches art to retired public school teachers at The United Federation of Teachers program in Brooklyn.