City Lights

  by: Tom Hynes

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Underneath the El, they can stare up and see God’s light,
Blinking and beating brightly above the ghetto streets,
Boldly charging through the veins of the breathing city.
The rain falls softly, tip tapping like a nervous hand
That paints the sorrows and tears upon the tenement walls.
Telling the tale of all those who came before and gave their soul.

Breaking through the strewn fog, stabbing right for the raw soul
Of this night. Through the midnight hours, the avenues explode with light,
Creeping up the cracks, dying a thousand times across the barren walls.
Now only the steam escaped from the once dry and oppressed streets
Shows. The air has become cool suddenly. The tormented hands
Fall to the street to touch the rough, hard skin of the city.

In with his tents and sideshows the carnival invades the city.
The hungry fiends hide in the shadows without a sole
Possession to lose. A whole city hanging on by one hand,
Looming off the edge of the surface, away from the light.
Feeders feeding along the boulevards, alleyways and streets
Can be evaded, but there is no escape from those city walls.

But as the night drags on, they’ll dream of that world without walls
Somewhere beyond the trains and taxicabs of the racing city.
Their eyes fixed on a dream, as they troop the rebellious streets.
The puddles of rain dance up and down rallying their souls
As they strut up the block, baked in the warm glow of the city lights.
A hundred forgotten lifetimes spoken on their worn hands.

The sun peers through the tenement walls. To the sky their hands
Will reach and awaken again within these silent concrete walls.
The city beat on through the night, into the blue and gold daylight
Hours, never missing a beat. Hearts bled throughout the stoic city
All through the night. But the children’s schoolyard screams sum up the sole
Air of the day. The smell of the morning drifts along the bustling streets,

Jam-packed alive. They high step their way through the brilliant streets
And before the day is done, every single one will join their hands
Together and receive the day’s spirit and prepare their souls
For the coming night. Scaling the impossible, fortress walls
And on the cigarette clenched between their fists, a prayer for the city,
For those that never escaped the night, and for those yet to see the light.

Along the divine streets, the spirit penetrates the strongest walls
And in their hands so true will rest the silent promise of the city
To keep safe this soul and keep lit those burning city lights.