The City I Love Is No Longer The City I Left
Yessica Klein
Copan’s concrete poetry —
Niemeyer’s curves slither,
flirt-dancing in the centre of tropical
chaos,
in the uneasy beauty your streets hold,
São Paulo —
& my hunger: a passionate hunger —
stomach-clenching claw
claiming indigenous sounds
the shouting chiming over the cathedrals
& light polluted sunsets, designer skyscrapers,
& toucans —
& urban
grime
bathed by the grey drizzle —
São Paulo slow-dancing in its Capricorn belt
blessed by the Southern Cross,
mango
trees burst the
pavement —
& my hunger: fresh cashew juice down the chin —
a longing that roars to swallow the tropics
gluttonous & desperate
handfuls
until there are no words left for it
Yessica Klein (she/her), a Brazilian-German writer based in Berlin after stints in São Paulo, London, Liverpool, and Lisbon. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from Kingston University (UK) and her writing has been featured on 3:AM, SALT., The Moth, and more, and it’s forthcoming on Magnum Photos and The Lighthouse Review. She was also shortlisted for the 2017 Jane Martin Poetry Prize.