New York City Is My Muse Poem by Deborah Downes

You are a brilliant patchwork of people, wearing their imperfections with pride
not ashamed to be different.

Like a jagged concrete and glass tiara surrounding an emerald heart
you are both lush and cold in synch.

At once soothing and stimulating is the rhythmic rocking of your subways
punctuated by the occasional discordant screech of metal on metal.

You are an assault of sight, smell, and sound on the senses
each vying to be noticed by indifferent passers-by....
artful store windows, pungent aromas from curb-side kiosks
and rap, rock, or classical as performed by wandering minstrels.

Where else can individuality be noticed among the teeming masses
or the lofty and lowly stand side by side without thought of social status?

Where else can one get lost in the crowd yet still be an integral part of the whole
or be down then uplifted by the energy of the streets?

NEW YORK CITY!
you are where the impossible becomes inevitable
and incongruent parts come together in a symphony of humanity and culture.

NEW YORK CITY!
You inspire both love and hate but never indifference.