This city breathes
the city stirs and turns
this city is a sleeping tiger
a moving, boulevard-striped back
skyscrapers like** strands of fur on end
it raises its young here

it is a mother tigress
as its cubs play and sleep on her warm body
their paws pound the pavement
they feel it move
her beating heart resonates in every beam and sewer grate

her roar is in the screeching subways
the bustling voices and
blaring horns of the streets
the calls of the preachers
the drums on the sidewalks
every cash register in
every deli

the sobs
the gasps
the spoken word of her clan

she moves in
strange
ways
she is a firm parent
and rears her children strong
and when they come, she will break them
remake them
rebuild them as stronger beings

she watches her offspring as their hearts
grow and
break and
grow
and she caresses and toughens

the tigress is strange
her young are countless and strangers
bound only by a love,
however deep,
however dim,
for their cubhood home.