City GirlWatchListenReadCity GirlThere is something inside of you
That is inherently beautiful, Radiant in such a subtle way That most people will miss it The same way young children Can’t appreciate their history Because their memories aren’t scarred Like their elbows and knees And they don’t understand That pain that comes with remembering Because there is no progress without struggle, No movement without combustion, No building without breaking foundations And you have skyscrapers inside of you Leaving your clouded eyes scarred And I’d like to think the reason I can see them Is because I have scabs to match yours, That I am made of dried blood That dyed dead skin The color of red bricks, But I dunno I haven’t taken the time to deconstruct you And you’re far too beautiful To take a sledgehammer to, So tell me, City girl, All sidewalks and steel beams, Have the tourists spray painted their names Into your back alleys As they have mine? Do you sometimes find Displaced memories Sleeping on your park benches Huddled under outdated newspapers Bearing headlines you’d rather forget? Is the grass overgrown In the lawns of your cobblestone churches? And have you marked off some parts of yourself With yellow caution tape Because some places Are better left unexplored? I know I have And sometimes I’m afraid I’ve just been building new cities on top of old ones Creating a cavernous layercake That’s just waiting to collapse in on itself And I think you understand I think you are as holey as I am I think you are punctured lungs Leaking oxygen love But you can’t call it that Cause it’s hard to speak when you’re breathless When your words have been stolen And the culprits have left your walls Riddled with bullet holes, Questioning Why you let them see how much you were worth In the first place, And how such fumbling hands Managed to crack the codes to your safe spaces… But I’d like to think I still light up the same way. That some part of me Has managed to retain the glow Despite the storm clouds, Despite the maelstrom, Despite the erosion, Despite the constant explosions Trying to clear out old rubble By breaking it down Into manageable pieces We are constantly rebuilding, you and I If for no other reason Than that we need something to do With all the stones thrown through Our glass houses We are from shattered, broken suburbs And in turn have turned ourselves into projects As we try to build some sort of shelter Against the acid-rain world of ours And I don’t know if anything can stop the burning But little match girl Do not let this world scare you All the icicle hearts that inhabit it And try and stab at you Are nothing compared to your fire Even when it’s still just a spark And you have a cities to ignite, You have lamp-posts to install in your soul Till everyone can see your paper lantern heart glow And I know it’s a long way to go… But trust me I know these arterial roads Cause I’m old enough For mine to be varicose And if nothing else They lead away from the past And that’s progress by any definition So please Whatever it is that has managed To ignite the tail lights of your internal fireflies Don’t lose it Don’t hide it And don’t sell to strangers For anything less than it’s worth Because this earth is filled with people Who would rather your streets be silent And your cranes rust and crumble So that they won’t be alone in their stagnation But do not let their decay spread Instead Approach them With your arms Urban sprawled open And remind them That no man is an island Be we? We are all cities, you and I… |