As children play princess and warriors

No one looks at you in the eye

Ugliness and beauty coincide

Souls flicker in the shadow of glass towers

Urban carnage and tranquillity collide

Dragon breathe escapes from ghostly caverns

Zealots scream unheard from their soap-boxes-

"Repent, the end is near."

As the living sleep and the dead live

Sirens of blue men dance around

Beasts of combustion run down walking dead

Hope is a religion worshipped in this city of extremes

For many it is all they have

Haggard men drink nectar from brown bags

And die in cardboard boxes

Watched by a million eyes

City of quiet noise

Why do we hide behind masks, play foolish games?

Live fairy tales, fabricate truth

Illusions-

In magic and madness