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Poetry
Poem: “L’esthétique de la Ville”
June 28, 2023

I love when nature recreates the urban.
I love this garden on a fire escape:
water in what had been a fifth of bourbon
steeps lilies; and a cooler, left agape,
holds, over dirt and worms, a swatch of lawn,
a pinwheel and a decorative rock.
Cherry tomato plants are growing on
props sticking from a soil-stuffed cinderblock.
There are some slugs; there is clematis scaling
the brickwork and the air-conditioner.
Plump pigeons, always roosting on the railing,
come for her breadcrumbs. They are tame for her,
the Circe of Gramercy Park, the girl
for whom nibs open and all tendrils curl.

illustration of morning glories and a dragonfly on a fence

HyunJung Kim, The Fresh Summer , 2019. Used by permission.

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