Non Urbane

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I am interested in megacities. I inhabit one (Buenos Aires) and like most inhabitants of a metropolis, I switch between loving and loathing it. Simple poem, with a cinematic tone, by which I mean that I imagine a camera taking a swooping-down shot, as in a movie. I was born and raised in north London, and am thinking of places like Green Street in Seven Sisters, amongst many many others, where immigrant communities bring a taste of the developing world to the city. Looking at it now, strictly speaking, I should think of a word other than urbania, because it sounds like urbane, which is out of place... What is the synonym of urbane...?

The Third World

Image from above

Swooped down over the vastness

A cinematic bass drum

Heralding the shanties

The teeming South

There are big pockets of it

In London and New York

But in Mumbai and Mexico and Sao Paulo

It’s unencumbered, let loose

This is real urbania

This is what we have done.