Jun 17, 2016 Free Verse, Original Poetry, The Daily Post

Electric Grave – Retaining Walls
©June 17th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram

When the lights on the ground
Dim the lights in the sky
And the sound of deep silence
Is silenced by deep sound
The collective sounds of human
And non-human in dizzy dance
And spirals of movement
From home to work, to play,
To home to work, to play,
Under electric lights, or inside cars
Or on electric trains or inside buses
Then, the City raises her head
And looks around, a wraith of beauty
A terror to nature, razed
To the ground, except in parks
And sidewalks.

Then, the City peers in at vacant lots
And at junkyards, at the lost child
In a lonely alley, seeking home,
At the bullies beating up a teenager,
At the dog racing up and down the streets
Collarless and ownerless, lost
Helpless, frightened, distrait;
At the two Vietnamese women
Waiting patiently at the bus stop,
Clutching their plastic shopping bags,
Wearing their trauma lightly
Like a little parasol over their heads
A little stooped, talking quietly;
At the bald man with a gold chain,
A cross tattooed on his bare arms,
Standing there at the Church of St. Francis
Staring blankly at his i-Phone,
Tears pouring down his face
As he leans against the retaining wall;
At the twenty-something boy-man
Who walks his dog every day,
And whose father tells everyone that he’s sick,
Sick of his son thinking he’s some
John Lennon type or something,
With his peace, and love, and guitar-playing;
At the flutter of girls who walk, unselfconscious
And full of beauty and foolishness,
In short shorts or short skirts, giggling,
Chewing gum, and checking their phones,
While grown men lounging against walls
Check out their legs.

The City peers in at all these,
And into houses, where things happen
That should not happen,
And the City turns her head away,
And goes to see the homeless man
Under the bridge, who smiles
Toothlessly at her, and offers her
His doughnut, which she takes,
And she takes him, as well,
With her, into the land of
All the forgotten dreams, and
Forgotten souls, and discarded lightbulbs
And broken people.
She takes him there, by the hand,
Eating his doughnut,
And leaves him there.

And the City goes to bed
In the one hour between night and day,
While she dreams another life
That’s lived between her
Streets and her alleyways,
Her parks and her highways.

She sleeps, and dreams away
Her whole concrete existence,
Which vanishes in a gathering cloud
Of dust and desolation,
As the sea advances, ready to claim her
As his own.

The retaining walls start to crumble,
And the City smiles in her sleep.
_______________________________________________________

City

Tags: #City, #DailyPrompt, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #TheDailyPost