Poetry: City Life

the fumes this city exhales into my face
every morning
are starting to eat at my mask

and the trash of 200 years piled up around me
is a constant reminder that we can never throw anything
far enough away

it's a thin film over every romance
every half-assed attempt at significance
we pass our fingers over every summer

sometimes i think we're not even fooling ourselves
rotting as we are along with the detritus of our ancestors
sitting here next to the mountain of pbr cans
in the foggy reminders of late night laughter

i know i can smell it between your breasts
the city life is there
beating between the wings of two bluebirds
as fierce as your mouth on mine
fighting to reach the sky through the clouds of exhaust

are we any different?
fighting through the street traffic
tweeting viciously at the gray dawn light
and fighting each other
for crumbs
in front of another corporate coffee hole

the ghosts with their skim lattes
don't see me any differently any how
i'm just part of the scenery

another bird on another breast
digging through the trash heap
of civilizations past

wearing each treasure
like a discarded mask