"Metropolis in Motion"

- By Rishika Rathore

[The City Awakes]

"City landscape is a strange thing,

soil lays hushed beneath the terrazzo

flooring. Eensy-weensy ground mining

by mice makes artificial solid,

randomly porous. Termites, reaching to

upright lengths of mahogany and oak furniture."

[The Wild Among Us]

"Anthills, acting as sandcastles to beaches

on the island-like urban township. Homeless cats,

echoing their meow-meow in

strange corners of the metropolis. Stray dogs,

swaying the harshness of new-age humans

by tail wagging. Sparrows, pigeons, and crows—

campaigning in the ether, fluttering in the spaces

between sky and wires."

[Lost in the Concrete Jungle]

"Abandoned buildings, alone in the street—

like Anubis—God of mummification

resides there. Graffiti walls, delivering

bold messages of equality and feminism!

Overhead cables stretch across the skyline,

creating a makeshift web of hello-hi spiderlings."

[The Pulse of Movement]

"Stations and bus stops, warehousing travel journals

of numerous wanderers. Billboards and advertisements,

standing tall like pyramids in the limited shrubbery of the city.

Potted plants on balconies sit like Cleopatra

on a throne, breathing new life into the city."

[The Sacred and the Secular]

"The museum and governor house

displaying typical daguerreotypes.

Cafes and motels, attracting customers

to become recipients of their toils. Premises of

religious orders await postulants

to catalogue them as demure and prim."

[Flow of lives]

"Playgrounds and parks, witnesses to the acrobatics

of swings, gifting the city a territory, still holding

children and spring. Public benches and footpaths

accommodate footsteps of destinies

which didn’t make it far and still dreaming."