to reach such heights began to feel like a chore,
but the revelation of looking down was compensation.
and i, who for years hated the city,
actually appreciated something in the view.
this huge, spread out, free-space-destroying place,
from above becomes something smaller and more manageable.
and later walking the claustrophobic concrete-steel streets
i catch a glimpse of those hills, mountainous and green,
peeking through buildings, stoic and grey.
do other cities have views like this?—
nature so violently juxtaposed with non-nature?
like when the roots of trees crack through the concrete