City Of Man

This city is built of man, paved in the histories
of the men who built its systems - from its dirt roads
to its sewers, each cobblestone an unmarked grave.  

Men who lay cables, concrete, foundations.
Men who sold pants and sandwiches
to the men who lay the skeleton of the city;

men who built storefronts for pants and sandwich shops,
but eyed something higher. What is a city
if not the strata of these stories

stacked in layers, brick by cellular brick
to build pyramids, then empires – corporate skyscrapers
of Babel that shine like the Golden Calf when they catch the sun.

© 2021 Jewish Young Professional

From The Sunday Muse

***

Written for The Sunday Muse