Birds in the City

I moved into the city
to let its beauty bruise me,
send me broken to some cell of
madness, spluttering grit.
I wanted to
lick the street's gray,
ingest all the apathy of
so many souls crossed
pointlessly. I wanted to
taste rape
in the smog trickling
down my throat

but then this bird I couldn't see
sang out from some dead tree
and my spirit soared from me

and all that gutter-gold.