My City – Friday Flash Fiction Challenge by OM

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   The endless rain of cars upon the streets lends a droning noise to the excited bustle of crowds that pace the streets in furious waves of cell phones and music players. Conversations you did not need to hear and lyrics you shouldn’t even be able to hear.

   Up and down and across the buses loop with black coughs. At even intervals, as trains arrive with squeals as painful as aching joints, and the ground rumbles in a mockery of the earthquake that has been on its way for the last fifty years.

   Around, buildings tower with promising winks and glassy eyes. Mirrors of desire. Coffee warms the hands of most who browse the streets. 

   Trees grow within their cages, trimmed and perfected. Blossoming in spring and illuminated in winter. They line the streets like ornamental filters. People flick their cigarette butts in appreciation.

   An overpriced food truck. The same free newspaper you avoided two blocks back. No, you don’t have any spare change. You jaywalk a one way street. A car stops for you.

   Every once in a while the sun deigns the city worthy of an appearance. But most days the skies mimic the cold cement, and cry for good measure. Ever followers, clothing of black and grey greet the eye like the dense fog that has been around all week.

   Hard paths line the water, just beyond the shore. Bike bells and pounding steps followed by the scent of sweat. The occasional seal greets from afar, soon chased away by a ship’s horn. Gritty sand is cool in the shadow of the logs that line the beaches. Hills of grass and a spattering of trees give a semblance of privacy. 

   Every few months, fireworks cheer, costumes parade the streets. And sometimes birthday suits on two wheels flash past amongst cheering laughs.

   Languages hum to each other. Every corner, a new one. Pointing fingers, flashing cameras, and large buses driving just a bit too slowly through the winding, illogical streets.

   Yellow, red, black, signs lit, meters already running, slowing past bus stops and huffing when no one moves, speeding off for better luck elsewhere. Of course when you call, there are none available.

   Because when night falls, the buses retreat and the alcohol pours and the police are unyielding with their sirens and dooming slips of paper. Stumbling from the bars and clubs, money scattered throughout the night, the cabs are there to collect the rest.

   The scent of cuisines as you walk towards the water. Never the same one twice. Except for sushi. 

   Clothing sales as you move towards the pounding heart of traffic lights and beeping cars. Malls of stale air and clashing stores. Further away, niche boutiques and trendy wear eat away at your bank statement.

   You avoid the east. The used needles that sleep beside someone who is not all there at the moment. The transactions that take mere seconds, switching hands as fast as they greet each other. And after dark, the knives that flash.

   The buildings sigh downwards as you move north. Trees overtake the ground. Houses  coexist among them, each with pet plants growing, well manicured and obedient. Here you hear the children playing, the dogs barking. Occasionally the complaint of a hungry cat.

   Vehicles grunt their way up the steep roads. Colourful shoes flash as joggers and cyclists challenge the slopes. Up and up, until the forests swell, ripe with bird calls, dainty hooves, and snuffling snouts. 

   And the mountains overlook with the fondness as the city spreads like competing children. At the buildings that covet the watery view and the bright colours of the sun’s extremes.

   As light fades, the clouds, in a rare moment of kindness, may choose to reveal the sky’s solemn sentries that dot the darkness in a slow, rotating guard. The city lights glimmer like a dying fire’s embers. It’s warm, and if you could, you would reach out and touch it.

—-

A fun Friday challenge by OM to describe any city in less than 1 000 words. I decided to describe my city, Vancouver. Has anyone ever visited before? Can you relate?

49 thoughts on “My City – Friday Flash Fiction Challenge by OM”

  4. Smokers littering to show their appreciation of surrounding nature was very effective! Deign is a new word to me so thanks for that 🙂

    Really enjoyed the visuals but did you mean “slowing past bus stops” or “slowing passed bus stops”?

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  7. Loved this. Like walking down two blocks in Manhattan:) I guess this could be sensory overload for some folk but it’s way I live where I live. And interesting enough, this really could describe any modern metropolis today.

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  8. You only have to see my own writing to know how short my attention span is. I seldom make it through anything as long as this post. But I did this time, and enjoyed it thoroughly all the way through. You’ve crafted such great imagery here. I was there in the reading. All senses involved. Wonderful. Standing ovation! Really. ~ Bill 🙂

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      • Been two days without any reply. Seems difficult to book a resort at downtown Vancouver. Don’t worry. I won’t bug you or your friends. 😀

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      • Well, the resort I am trying to book at Vancouver won’t be available until 2015. They offered me a 2-bedroom unit for 2 weeks in November, but I was planning to go alone. So, it was declined, unfortunately. Anyway, the impulse to go is gone by now. I am booking a vacation elsewhere. Sorry about that. Else, I could post a poem about Vancouver this year.

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  12. You know those dawn-to-late-night time lapse films they sometimes take of cities? That’s the impression this piece left with me. All the aspects of the city flowing in on my awareness, on and on and away. Very dynamic.

    Now I wish I’d known about this challenge in time and could have tackled it, too.

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  13. Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving a like. So, I came here and was delighted.
    As I read this post, I kept thinking “Vancouver… this has to be Vancouver, as I know it and have known it to have changed to now.” So, it was not at all a surprise that you communicated Vancouver, as you explain at the very end. You have articulated your sense of place beautifully. Bravo! G

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  16. Imagery is everything to me, and you’ve just won me over with some lush images here. Just a beautifully written piece. Exquisite and downright inspiring.

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  18. Hi Christine, this is quite poetic. It flows beautifully. Not one word out of place and so rich in description. I particularly like the cement and sky parallel. So much better than saying grey and when it cries… Whoooo!

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  21. Pingback: “My City” – Christine Fichtner‏ | Richibi's Weblog

  22. on my own blog, Christine, I’ve given a page over to your poem, an utter gem, and suggested your “My City” should be the official poem of Vancouver

    bravo. and all the best

    Richard

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