isn't it beautiful

Ever see a painting or photograph of just the dirty old city and love it? This is my take on that

the streets are dirty
beneath my painted feet
the smell of gas and soot
penetrates my nose
Village Manor is crumbling
the pillars tumble across
the door
a lady in a red splashed stained coat
asks a stranger for the time
he gives it to her
shakes his head
and smiles crazy lady
isn't it beautiful
the heat
the scents
of exotic foods
from far-off lands
the way they walk
and no one knows
where they are going
board a bus crowded the sweet
perfume of so many stranger's bodies
bustle by
hear the sirens
bright yellow parking tickets decorate
a line of parked cars on a
one way street
the smash crash slamming
into some person's cherished family
wagon
don't walk don't park don't stand
signs telling faceless city dwellers
what to do
isn't it beautiful
so many people
unlocking doors of dilapidated buildings
dodging trash in unlit stairwells
where no one knows your name
or where you are going
or what you are going to do
when you get there
making love beneath the city lights
blocking out the moon and stars
this is our world
tiny ants determined
a school of fish
a sea of people
the city
isn't it beautiful?

Author's Note

http://www.miratelinc.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/toronto-city-of-opportunity-survey.jpg

Reviews

[Matt Sayer]

Beauty is not only neat, organised perfection. It is not the simple, the easy, the picturesque scenes of calculated splendour. Beauty hides in the crumbled decadence, the raw, filthy chaos of trash-strewn streets and wild, unbidden and short-lived emotions. Your writing speaks of such vibrancy concealed by surface-level anarchy, and you have clearly experienced this incongruous magnificence many times with your own perceptive eyes. Bravo!

[Lyn Anderson]

You get it. And the only irony is that I do find it beautiful.

[Érenn]

Never visited Toronto (The most I know is the stadium present in Toronto where the ATP Masters 1000 tournament[tennis] is held every alternate year) But the picture you have painted here is amazing. I can imagine most of the stuff. The image on top is also helpful. I sense that even though this tone seems to be pretty moody and snappy, but there is also this feel that the narrator can't help but love this. Sometimes the imperfections make the already present beauty even more beautiful ^^ Thank you for sharing enjoyed this read as well ^^

[Lyn Anderson]

Good. Cause I love Toronto. It is dirty, and smelly, and alive with history and every type of person you could imagine. :)

[therisa]

Every time, I have to board a TTC bus, streetcar or subway, during rush hour, I pray to whatever God/dess, to hear my plead, for an anxiety-free ride home. Knowing, no one else, gives a flighting fig, about my plight with anxiety/panic attacks, as they bury their noses, deeper, into their Metros and 24s, in their rush to get home. While there are parts, I do love living, in a city, but this isn't one. Sigh.

Often wonder, am I asking too much for a community that has all of the benefit of a city, but none of daily hassle of transit, overcrowding of the shelter system, or people begging, at every street corner, for a moment of your time and money. Just to meet their monthly rental needs.

[Lyn Anderson]

I am sorry, I confess, I love the city, and penned this as a broke college student.

[therisa]

I do love the city, which I live in, but I want more Kensington Markets, and less Yonge-Dundas Squares. To me, Ottawa is, the very opposite, of what a good city should be, it's totally soulless and cold.

[Joyce S. Greene]

They say that crowds drive rats crazy! I can see why - NYC is the pits, IMHO. I hear irony in your tone and it echoes in my heart. Guess I'm a country girl at heart and shudder at the thought of living in the midst of a sea of uncaring people. Great job, K.

[John Alexander McFadyen]

This made me think and the images are of a US city such as New York or Chicago. There is a ring to it and I guess all cities have similar characteristics.

[Lyn Anderson]

My backyard Toronto - a walk from bathhurst to yonge

[John Alexander McFadyen]

Is that Yonge at heart lol?

[Sami Khalil]

A very descriptive write...Thank you for sharing...:)................