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Writer's picturemarychristinedelea

In a City You Will Never Visit by Young Smith

In a City You will Never Visit

by Young Smith


Tonight, in a city you will never visit,

no one finds your absence strange.


In that Kitchener or Jabalpur,

that Shadrinsk or P’yongyang,


no one waits for you to call,

no one expects you at a party,


no one searches for your face

among a crowd of passerby.


If an alto sings off key somewhere

in that Yerevan or Belomorsk,


that Gwangju or Kinshasa,

no one is reminded of your voice.


You are the subject of no rumors,

whether counterfeit or true,


in that Riga or that Reykjavik,

that Kursk or Saskatoon,


and in that Aberdeen or Abidjan,

that Taipei or Bucharest,


no one envies your good fortune

or begrudges your old debts


(just as no one grits his teeth there

at the mention of your name


or relives a dark embarrassment

for which you were to blame).


We’ll find your eyes in no one’s dreams,

then, in that Banjul or Jakarta,


no one listening for your footsteps

in that Woollahra or Dakar,


and in the morning when you don’t

appear, no one will be surprised,


since those who might have hoped

you’d come will not yet have arrived.



from the book, In a City You Will Never Visit

buy it here








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