city at midnight

death comes slowly to those
who are slaved by the city

plagued by the traffic,
afflicted with graveyard shifts
demonized by paychecks,

it is a constellation of cancers,
but with moments of remission.

in the still hours of morning
when the car horns cease blaring
when the neighbors stop singing
when the children have gone to bed

when the manic thrum of the highway
subsides to a heart's beat

when the frenzied bustling of the daytime
hushes into a midnight

when constellations of stars
converge with galaxies of city lights

this fevered metropolis
comes alive

in this grand delusion.