How to Build A City
Contributor
Not Urban
Volume 7, Issue 03
November 8, 2021
How To Build A City 1
![](https://yalepaprika.com/media/pages/folds/not-urban/how-to-build-a-city/84d497d6a8-1636824248/v7i4-diagram-1_huy-truong.jpg)
Step 1
Take a final look. The city begins at the end. The end forgets the stories in your bygone eyes, when you saw the first world.
![](https://yalepaprika.com/media/pages/folds/not-urban/how-to-build-a-city/957aab3438-1636824247/v7i4-diagram-2_huy-truong.jpg)
Step 2
When the stars aren’t looking, loosen the clouds beneath their feet. Build tall walls to break them as they fall.
![](https://yalepaprika.com/media/pages/folds/not-urban/how-to-build-a-city/905ec7a13c-1636824246/v7i4-diagram-3_huy-truong.jpg)
Step 3
Gather around the fading of their fragments. Their light will keep your tired dreams awake.
Rearrange their constellations. This freedom is our final ritual.
- Kelsey Johnson, “Is the Evening Sky Doomed?,” New York Times, August 17 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/17/opinion/sunday/light-pollution.html. ↩︎