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I Remember You -- the city speaks

(The Hollow City Cycle include:
The Hollow City
I Remember You -- the city speaks
Last One Left)

You left me when the lights flickered
and the water turned bitter.
When the sky coughed ash
and the birds stopped singing.

You ran.
All of you.
As if I hadn’t held your every heartbeat
in the bricks of my spine.

I fed your dreams--
from paper boys to prophets.
I kept your secrets
in sewer grates and sun-warmed benches.
I lit your windows,
caught your tears,
sheltered your sins.

And now--
the vines know my name.
The weeds whisper lullabies
where children once screamed.
The wind is my voice,
and it remembers.

Don’t come back
to grieve what you abandoned.
I have roots now.
And bones.

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Paige Hind

Date: 5/11/2025 3:03:00 PM

Raw imagery - could feel as well as see the personification of the city, you gave it light

Alesia Leach
Date: 5/11/2025 3:34:00 PM

Wow, thank you, Paige--that’s such a meaningful thing to hear. I hoped to give the city its own voice and soul, so knowing you felt it as well as saw it means everything. I really appreciate you reading.

Justin Bordner

Date: 4/13/2025 8:54:00 AM

The vividity of your poetry is extraordinary Poetess. The descriptions soo palpable, "the bricks of my spine...". Your poetry is very alive! This fascinating, and very skillfully written vision, moral, reminds me of the inherent soul of a town that has supported the lives of the innocent and selfish alike. There's alot of mystery in the world's architecture that many people are oblivious to. There is much architecture in the United States whose origin is ill explained, demolished,...J.A.B.

Justin Bordner
Date: 4/13/2025 8:55:00 AM

even shrouded in fallacy...J.A.B.