Naked City

We took away the houses
And the windows
The signs
The light

We took away the iron
We took apart the fire escapes
We took a lot of trash
And tossed it

While tearing asunder the street corners
We took the restaurants
And the cafes
And the cars
And the crap
And we dropped it all somewhere
And walked away from it

And we returned to a naked city
Where we couldn't hide
Behind dumpsters and curtains
Or lock ourselves away
In warm spaces
And places with dim lighting
Fighting to pretend
That we're out with friends
When we're as alone
As we've ever been

And for the first time we felt air
And allowed ourselves to breathe it
And we looked at each other
And looked away
And learned to look again

Some of us wanted to leave
Some of us actually left
But the rest of us stayed
And prayed we could figure out
How to go about living
And a naked city