Kurt Philip Behm

Concrete Jungles

There’s a wildness to a city

that wilderness doesn’t have

 

In closeness—an isolation

as tenants stalk their paths

 

The repetition of wanton avarice

pits dog and dog upon dog

 

The knife edge of the skyscrapers

cutting the residents into cogs

 

There’s a fierceness to the streets

the rockiest trail can never match

 

A menace looms inside their shadows

impossible to catch

 

Hidden death within the gridlock

as nature disappears

 

A violence calling from within

—only city dwellers hear

 

(Train To White River Junction: March, 2018)