JaywalkingThis is when the old and the young,
beasts and confraternal drunks
damn the consequences of death
lying porous on crossroads upon
bifurcated paths, fractured junctions
and ceremonial cul-de-sacs...
The time is immaterial,
so long as the traffic lights — the veggie-green,
the claret, and the urine-amber —choose their slow
blinking and rapid-eyelid movement carefully.
And moon might decide not to power its own light.
Tenebrous...
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Categories:
car, city, travel, urban,
Form: Free verse
Smile and nodSmile & nod
Actin like my attention spans top notch
Steady glancin at the clock
Checkin my wrist with no watch
Don't take offense
This probably won't make sense
Sht got me all jittery & tense
I really can't help it
My brain cells are spent
Done way too many drugs
Still do...just because
I keep going & going...
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Categories:
urban, creation, growing up, mental
Form: Free verse
The OG of the Penitentiary
Steel gates whisper his name in the wind,
Legends bow, their bravado dimmed.
A gaze like thunder, a voice like stone,
King of the shadows, he stands alone.
No chains could bind the fire inside,
No walls could tame his ruthless pride.
Even the hardest, the ones who don’t...
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Categories:
urban, character, deep, destiny, emotions,
Form: Rhyme
Ways Of Not Arriving
My mind drifts loose
into the moving art framed by train window.
Houses in the field glitch by—
brick red roofs and windows
that hold sunset across the champaign.
I wonder what it’s like to live
in that world, where you
wake and rest with the sun.
My gaze drifts to clouds
light as swan feathers.
Their dance—effortless, unrepentant
as the sunset dyes...
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Categories:
urban, art, fate, life, longing,
Form: Free verse
Hire The Hood 1Hire the Hood 1
I know you want to hire the hood.
To give them work, like you said you would.
To lift them up, and make life good,
To see success spread through the neighborhood.
But hire those with drive and skill,
With passion, purpose, and iron will.
People who can play their part,
With sharp minds and loyal hearts.
They must align...
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Categories:
urban, friendship, future, humanity, identity,
Form: Rhyme
From my window seat“This is a familiar route and one of the most common ones (at least to my seasoned eyes; you may find it beautiful)” — overheard.
______
A day like any other,
but also
a day like no other—
...
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Categories:
urban, car, feelings, freedom, imagery,
Form: Free verse
dyed memory
—Blackout.
\ rewind \\
9pm,
my messy curls sizzled
as chemicals
flow down the drain—
raven,
...
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Categories:
urban, hair, hurt, lost, lust,
Form: Other
Urban SpacesUrban Spaces
The world is getting smaller.
People become dwellers.
A newlife of solo living.
A single life of well-being.
Do weall have anxiety?
Through loneliness especially.
Maybe we have lost trust in each other.
Walk on by, don’t even bother.
Some live in urban spaces.
Pass on by many faces.
Webecome too independent.
Individual...
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Categories:
urban, society,
Form: Rhyme
Lonely StreetsThe streets were bustling with people.
out of curiosity my ears tried to catch some noise
Alas,
All it heard was pure silence.
There were no chirping of the birds.
There were no barking of the dogs.
There were no sound of people chattering & quarrelling.
Just .....................my thoughts...
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Categories:
urban, emotions, how i feel,
Form: Free verse
Midnight GlossThe city exhales steam like a tired beast,
its breath pooling in alleyways
where no one walks anymore.
Cold, wet cobblestones gleam
like the backs of forgotten coins,
each one holding a secret
you must step lightly not to disturb.
Streetlamps blink like they’re remembering
how to dream—
orange halos shivering on the slick asphalt,
casting shadows
with no one to belong to.
Shop windows sleep behind
grimy...
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Categories:
urban, america, city, gothic, international,
Form: Free verse
Very SomethingHealing through drinking.
Enjoying life through smoking
Tobacco and weed.
Perhaps natives were always
Onto that very something....
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Categories:
urban, addiction, drug, happiness, life,
Form: Tanka
StarsI can't help it. As I lay under the most beautiful blanket of stars, it's hard not to be selective in my focus of attention, better yet my undivided becomes undecided as I gaze further into depths one could lose ones self and yet i cant take my eyes away from it.... ' Phone Home...
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Categories:
urban, appreciation, art, deep, poems,
Form: Rhyme
urban decay
In a deep indigo night, bright
sliver moonlight shines across a barren land.
On a lonely hill, a manor stands…
its windowed eyes to a world blind.
Staring into the void, sublime
wind tumbles desolate sands.
Broken, old, dried skeletal branches sway
the last fleeting remains of a harsh day…
A figure bare in bones n thin pale skin
standing in the...
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Categories:
urban, age, anger, art, city,
Form: Free verse
Future restaurant
False, mechanical eyes see across the city
Their connectors neatly hitting your brain stem with tiny signals
It’s amazing what technology can do these days
what your technology can do
You taste the salty fish cubes in front of you
Resting on a rectangle plate
Salty, but not much else
In a fine futuristic restaurant
Rain pattering the windows
Bluish green buildings in rows...
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Categories:
urban, 12th grade, age, science,
Form: Free verse
URBAN BALLERINA-On mine tippy-toes
The door would open shut;
The window was raised down;
On my pinky-toes;
Vertigo had me spinning so;
Simultaneously spinning on ceiling and floor;
Up above my head;
I am a urban ballerina
3/27/25
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr.2024...
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Categories:
urban, analogy, appreciation,
Form: Rhyme
Specific Types of Urban Poems
Definition | What is Urban in Poetry?
Poems Related to Urban
downtown, civil, metropolitan, civic, central, municipal, popular, public, town, village, burghal, citified, inner city, nonrural, oppidan,