How does a city speak?

by Lisa Cole

on a clear night between
sirens - chant of ancestors
under the bridge on the
street in the alleyway

now that civilization has
settled here, now that
civilization has sprawled
the landscape's language twists
and turns with it - but its heart never
changes, its wild savage
heart is always the
same
                                                                
the city speaks in secret
grids and sacred
alignments

it speaks in Babel speaks in
carnival speaks in
tongues

articulates in towering alphabets 
festive squares traffic circles broken
glass and the eloquence of
architecture

it sings with a rat's voice in
sublingual tunnels, whispers in
shadow-shapes on the wailing
wall

crow's voice at first light
music of busker, movement of
mime - cracks in the sidewalk
scream of graffiti and the
yawning red maw of the
cinema