Tribute to Chicago

Contest update: This poem was given honorable mention in the Preliminary Round 2 of the Spring Poetry SLAM, 2006.

A Tribute to Chicago

I came to her a virgin, fresh and inexperienced,
Straight from the Midwestern hinterland. I came
To this bawdy, buxom, full-bodied babe with the becoming smiles.
She is a gutsy broad with a swagger, savvy and sentient, missing nothing.
All that and more, she floods my senses with her naked charms.

I hear the ever-present, endless thrum of distant truck and car
As they ply the Dan Ryan with siren accent.
Traffic pulses to the red light beat.
The sight of sleepy sailboats, chafing at marina moorings and
Silhouetted by the luxurious sunrise, buoys my morning spirits.

On steamy summer days, I step straight off sizzling sidewalks
To dip at Montrose beach. The twinkling, blue-violet waters
Feel like wintergreen, all fresh and sudden cool on my skin.
The grains of sand part and squish up between my toes,
And I feel refreshed, rested, revitalized.

One season gives way to the next, and
When wicked winter wind blows
In through urban canyons and
Stings my cheeks with icy grains of snow,
I spend banked memories of warmer times along the waterfront.


I love America's Family Picnic on Chicago's "front lawn."
Taste of Chicago floods Grant Park with folk, exotic food, and fun
'Neath the watchful gaze of Sears Tower and Big John.
Energetic joggers lug along in full stride on Lincoln Park paths.
A city of contradictions, brooding, bustling, she has a beating heart, sure.


A crucible of peoples, a Mecca, a mass of throbbing humanity,
Melding and marrying to blur distinctions, is this town.
She is awake and wide-eyed, drinking deeply from life's cup.
In all her disparate and divergent glory, Capone to tres chic,
She owns my heart. And she holds her own with the world's best.