Portfolio

Cities

by Elani Spencer

They crossed over prairies and into the beating hearts of cities

searching for belonging among the scrawled art of cities

For years, they’ve watched ships from a distance

waiting for the tide, for the blooming fig trees of cities

They stood on the threshold between their world and ours,

looking for a sign among the stars twinkling above cities

They’re descended from warriors and freedom fighters,

smoke-choked shores and the burning of cities

Please be kind to the wanderers

taking cover under the umbrella of cities,

they’re just like you and me

with skyscraper hearts, born of cities

Now is the season of giving pocket-sized kindness,

anything you can spare for the preservation of cities

Show them the hole-in-the-walls, the B-train,

the light promised in liberty’s torch, all the love of cities

The streets painted red, green, and white

the invisible made visible under the lights of cities

If the endless well of wonder and magic within these limits runs dry

let there be mourning of cities

For there is no greater blessing to the world

than the hope bubbling up from the cracked sidewalks of cities,

that gives them and a little girl named

Elani a reason to carry on— thank you, cities.