A Beating Heart #poem & #painting by Nikos Laios

The winding streets,
Turning and threading
Through the concrete
And steel bowels of
The city like serpents,
The flashing lights and
The symphony of noise,
The madness and the
Neon lights flooding
This city with life,
Like blood flowing
Through the veins
Of a body.

We all heaved to the
Rhythm of this city,
A mass of humanity,
And you could lose
Or find yourself;
Everyone was
Anonymous,
Everyone was
Expendable,
Souls searching
For meaning.

Dramatic,
Transcendent and
Mundane moments
Being played out
In every corner;
Love, life,
Death, choices,
Creation,
Retreat and
Redemption.

The tattooed hipsters,
The suits and the stilettos,
The whores and the dandies,
The sold souls competing
For trinkets and baubles,
Men with no honour,
The corner shops with
The lights on at night,
The artists and poets
Capturing beautiful
Moments for posterity,
And the cowards,
The zombie men
And women who
Capitulated and who
Became the walking dead.

This city has
A beating heart,
And l flowed through
Its veins and lived a
Beautiful chaos;
I found myself,
A meaning,
An authenticity,
And I moved forward,
And that’s what
Counted.

I drank a neat scotch
And looked down
Through my window
At a carpet of lights
Flashing across the
City like sentinels;
I closed my eyes and
Took in a deep breath
Of the cool night air,
And sucked it all in.

I listened to jazz notes
From an apartment
Mingle with the muffled
Rock music from a night
Club at the corner,
The siren of a passing
Cop car wailing,
Pungent incense
Floating up through
The cracks of a door,
A drunk couple
Arguing on a street
Corner on their way home,
And the smell of
Onions and cabbage,
Garbage cans and wet bricks
All mingled and rose up to heaven
Like some burnt offerings
To God.

I looked up at
The stars and
Made my own
Sacrifice and
Communed with
My gods and
The beating heart
Of this city,
I contributed
To the symphony,
I was a part
Of something,
And I felt alive
And in the moment;
A member of humanity,
Passengers on a journey
Through life.