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To One Who Has Too Long in the City Spent
To one who has been long in city pent,
'Tis very sweet to look into the fair
And open face of heaven,--to breathe a prayer
Full in the smile of the blue firmament.
_____ John Keats
She fears that sidewalks and soaring storefronts
where she schleps each working day
gradually have become, her personal
get away concrete landscape.
To mutter a prayer admist
the narrow miss of gaping potholes,
and hark! a feel good, when to manuever
some slick move into the only parking space
before that sucker driving a shiny black Mercedes does.
There's no one more ecstatic, she who smiles
at the helpful countenance of the Lord & Taylor clerk
who dishes out the 50 percent off discount. Sweet!
(Not Jimmy Choos, true, but close enough.)
To view city commerce, the come on, the newest
advert spread across sleek buses, glam-bright windows,
signs on top of yellow taxis, the Sun Time's sale section;
call it a quest, a contentment, pilgrimage of satisfaction.
She who mourns days' passing, the closing
of the stores and so, dashes away a tear.
She heads with pals to the hottest jazz club venue.
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