As an aside, I should say that this poem isn’t exactly truthful. I actually do love this city. In fact I don’t really like this poem, it’s clumsy and somewhat juvenile, but I wrote it and sometimes you have to live with the misfires, and the untruths.

This city has a filthy heart
(This city,
And any city
And all cities)
I do not love its arteries
Clogged with cars
Cholesterol choked
Smog-gloomed paths
To cold extremities
It rushes with blood
We carry oxygen
From its breathing spaces
We carry light from its towers
Cones piercing the clouds
To see the world.
I do not love this city
(This city
And any city
And all cities)
I love her
And she brought me here
To breathe for the city.