The Truth About Tigers

Skinny moms in skinny jeans,
with brightly inked upper-arm tattoos,
hair tied back in sloppy, stylish ponytails,
watch their shaggy-headed children play in the parks.

Hipster cowboys sporting pearl-snaps
and JBG trucker caps crowd SoCo and East Sixth,
discussing microbrews and soccer,
in gentrified happy hour haunts.

Future leaders clad in burnt orange,
books and dreams in tow,
stride confidently along Guadalupe,
toward idyllic visions of a better world.

Politicians pair pointy cowboy boots
with thousand-dollar suits,
convening for lunch in diners and taquerias
south of the pink granite edifice.

Coffee shops and cafes,
some homegrown, others corporate,
buzz and bustle, just as fervent at 2 pm
as they were at the break of dawn.

The daily suburban exodus unfolds,
a sluggish serpent of fiberglass and metal,
slowly slithering down Interstate 35
and coiling back up Mopac.

In the cars, there’s music.
in the bars, there’s music.
and beneath the overpasses,
there’s music too.

Upturned bucket drumbeats
drift out to meet wide-eyed tourists,
as the homeless seek refuge
from the merciless summer sun,

casting its last nostalgic rays
over the remnants of a once sleepy college town,
and rising to greet the steady rhythm
of a burgeoning metropolis.

This poem is a response to the dVerse Poetics Challenge: City Love. While my intention was to compose a “love letter” to Austin, TX, the creative process took its own course. The result may not be a traditional ode of adoration, but it’s a candid portrayal of the city as I experience it.

“Love cities or hate them, for today’s poetics, I would like you to write a poem showing the beauty of your city or why you love the city you live in presently. If you do not dwell in a city these days, write about the city you had lived in earlier. Take us on a tour of your city and make us fall in love with it. Look out of your window, do you see people bustling by, can you see someone’s living room from there, do you see a sparrow sitting on the ledge or is there a park nearby from where you can hear kids playing and giggling! Get out in the streets, mingle with the people, see your city with new eyes and share with us. There are absolutely no restrictions on the form or the length.“