a poem that just saved my life

[purplepeacecow]

Inside The City
-Amy Kenna-

You wake up one morning;
you realize that you are a city. The sprawl
of your naked limbs
resembles Philadelphian suburbs,
witholding the same self-perpetuating
purpose of existence.
You turn a wrist, realize that your
inner weave of arteries, veins
is a highway system for the
freighters, the locomotives, the buses.
You realize that your intricacies,
like New York subway tunnels,
are simply mechanisms serving
to increase efficiency within
the structure.
You realize that your ruby blood
is nothing more than capital---
capital produced by one single
state-owned factory, central and monopolizing,
endless identical items, each
prepared for the market of a million
red and white consumers.
You begin to worry.

Then you walk the city streets,
observe the details of the metropolis.
You notice late-night jazz scenes,
schools of dance and theatre,
underground newspapers, glowing streetlights.
You realize that somewhere
inside the machinery of your organs,
a romantic cafe is opening its doors.
A public meeting is being held.
An abstract painter in his studio apartment
overlooking Times Square
is visited by inspiration.
You explore your empty streets
at dawn, and take note
of that moment when the sun streaks
over the buildings' tops, when the neihgborhoods
unfold like night roses, and
turn open their faces to a thousand
external possibilities.

And then you
stop worrying.