I was sure I would never fall in love with this city,
With any city,
All of them, with these small, box-like tiny houses,
Brick walls, with no soul of their own,
Together with suffocatingly small walls,
Well above the ground, with a window to look out to,
And hey you, try not to fall apart,
So many strangers, so much alone,
With so much going on all around, not anyone known,

Not just this city just take any other one,
Vast differences, vastly different living,
How do you even love something,
Knowing the unfair in how it treats you,
With all feathered furry coated you,
Enough food to fill up the stomach, and
A so-called home to go back to,
And on the opposite end, someone just like you sleeping,
Right there in front of the shops, closed,
In this storm, winds, heat waves,

But then I just looked up yesterday,
Up into the sky, I saw the stars,
Across a stone slab, slightly slanted,
Laying there, up above,
Feeling a direct connect with the universe,
With a moon-lit sky across my window,
Making my matchbox room feel more like home,

I remembered the set of strangers,
Delivering meals to people who could not cook for themselves,
I remembered the women being friends, sharing food daily,
With an unknown near the road edge,
I remembered the woman who once knocked at the church door,
Asking for some help, I remember the safe houses built,
I remembered the neighbor caring for her old neighbor,
I remembered the stranger warmly greeting me,
Or the shop owner asking me if I had any dinner at all,
Suggesting to go back home inside with the cold growing outside,
I remembered the girl trying to fight the injustice back home,
So many dreams, hopes in each one of the eyes,

And I felt all city is just, as once someone suggested,
A big village and village is home,
Somehow, somewhere,
Even with dark muddy, melting blocks of snow,
With edges, some dark shades of life,
Too difficult to bear, in these piercing edges,
I found few of these inter-connections,
Of hope, if any at all,

And it made me accept this city, cities in general,
Fall in love, okay, that is a lot to ask for,
But accept them as they are, what they are,
So maybe I would never fall in love,
With cities, but I have learnt to appreciate them,
Accept them, live in them,
To find a home for a while,
To be able to breathe in them!