those narrow streets and thug infested lanes

Cities have thrived over the last decade, as jobs and people have migrated back downtown from far-flung suburbs.
WSJ

those narrow streets 

and thug infested lanes

which my parents fled

when I was but a tyke.

*

stranding us out in meadows

 amidst birds and parks

and even a creek

where catfish lurked.

*

it all made me crazy

and my grades suffered

from lack of 

carbon monoxide.

*

but now at last I can

say goodbye to clean white sidewalks

and the rioting greenery

that grows like zombies in a movie.

*

or zombies who commute

no more of that for me

I walk five blocks to work

and live in a pesthole.

*

but me and the cockroaches

are so happy to be

urban creatures once again

that broken bottles look like tulips.

*

I don't need fresh air

and wide vistas

but rather the frisson

of hit-and-run encounters.

*