mmmdclxxxv

the slender-storied splendor with a secret

a hundred and forty stories
swirl around inside of me
this morning. as if have
indeed been shot up from

some sleek metropolis
so slender and erect that
i am ogled by the herds of
grounded human gnats

who shield their buggy
eyes as they look up at
me, almost bumping into
me first, as the herds make

their ways blobbily this way
and that, most all of them
headed for work somewhere,
perhaps, surprise, inside this

grandiose new obelisk with
which the tiny masses of worker
gnats seem heretofore unfamiliar.
and, yes, i feel them crawling through

my innards now, like tiny mechanistic
nuts and bolts that shoot like clock
work to whichever floors for this
day’s silly grind. like some

giddy unchecked feeling they do
rise in me, i think that i shall not
forget this frothed emotion. by
the dozens and soon hundreds

i am sated and yet shall remain
as hungry for this breakfast now as
i will be tomorrow as they come and
go. it seems like only yesterday

or so that some smug architect
and then a few more muscular
gnats emboldened by some
lines strewn onto parchment

dug the hole from which,
story by story, plate by plate,
i was til but a month or two ago
so neatly stacked. look at me now,

i’ve grown into such a smooth
and dapper behemoth. i’ll watch
as these vast clouds of gnats begin
to wither, wonder if one of them

spits a soul upon its death knell,
knowing full well that i’ll far
outlast the comings and the
goings of this batch and its

identical dim progeny and what
comes after such and so on until
generations have inhabited me,

mingling with the exquisite stories

within the gleaming walls of my
spectacularly modern exterior,
never let in on the secret that it’s
i who am the soul of this fine city.