This is New York City–
the metropolis of big apples
and miniscule elevators.
Where every block speaks two dozen languages,
and every cabbie relays stories of persecution and opportunity,
where endless energy mingles
with curbsides of bagged, early-morning garbage.

And it continues to spin–
a perpetual motion top, never slowing.

"People don't pay attention,"
says my Bahrainian driver.
But I do.
I witness the world condensed.
I inhale the odors of the globe.
I know that I need go no further
to experience all the joy and disturbance
of an earth at once both in chaos and harmony.

This is New York.

Text and image © 2012 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.