Poetry of Place

This poem is a response to prompt #2. 

The Seventh Most Populous City
The concept of one out of over
One hundred seven billion, six hundred two million, seven hundred seven thousand, seven hundred ninety one
Lives that have ever blinked on this planet
Hits me hard as I close the taxi's yellow door
And face the endless stream of Beijing on a sultry afternoon. 
How can one teenage girl
Become anything more than average
In a pool so vast? 
The sunless skies and the ads on the streets
Engulf the city 
Until even the crowds have diminished
To short breaths in eternity
And the impact of the
Squat, smoky noodle shop on the corner of
Two redundant streets
Is the same as the impact of me.

Note: 107,602,707,791 is the number of people who have ever been born according to this article here. Beijing is the seventh most populous city in the world according to this.