absence does not make
the heart grow fonder; absence
makes the heart **forget.

She wore bright glossy

Humbug tights.


Aw ****,

the way she smoked

her Marlboro Lights

was pornographic.

She flicked her smoke rings

at the traffic

and was blown to bits by

cheap hairspray.

(Considering my love of Jean Genet,

I told her ‘you make sense this way.’

She smiled and clicked

a ****** heel.

‘Holy ****! How real you feel!’

Not that I have points of reference.)

Stop confusing my ******* preference

with La-La-Lola Soho Kink.

Your lips are painted ***** pink

and you wrap them round

your glass and down

your Lambrini-Girls Pre-Party

drink.

(I want you against my kitchen sink!)

And naked -

How you overplayed it!

I think you were a bit

afraid

of both your halves,

your masquerade,

your matching scars.

(What did mermaids do to

all their sailors

struck by stars?)


You’re a crazy fusion,

Top-heavy wonder.

You’re a woman, my dear -

and you pulled me under.

So grand I always imagined it,
a city beyond the grasp of realism.
Famous in it's own glory
An entity that survives in the hearts of its citizens.

Stories told by those who's hearts it has claimed
are presented in the notes of our music
the pages of our literature
and screens of our TVs.

They plant a craving in our souls for that which we will never find;
the bar is raised higher than any part of this world could reach.

It was supposed to be breathtaking -- it was supposed to make you cry out with glee and wonder.
Excitement so rooted in a determined fist that no restraints could hold it.
But it wasn't that,
in fact, it was the opposite.
So human it seems wrong
unnatural
underwhelming.

Broadway is just another street
Times Square isn't bright enough
The Statue of Liberty is too small.

And it shouldn't be
that
this city,
the city of all cities,
is
underwhelming.

**We can't blame the city,
it's been in our hearts from the first moment we discovered the world.
I realize that we could never see the city's glory the way it's portrayed
until we've learned to love the city from the inside out
until we experience the soul of the culture
the people
the music
the colours
the art that is New York.

Then Broadway will never be just another street
Times Square will be brighter than our most colourful dreams
and the Statue of Liberty could never be
small.

So now I leave you, New York,
with the promise of a new perspective, philosophy, and appreciation
of what you mean to your people.