Progress

When they begin to erect new building in an old town everything cowers, hunkers down except the ugly. The ugly is in the concrete even before they pile it up into office space and loft apartments. The library and the townhall shrink. Residents tend to scuttle faster between the modern high-rise constructions. The classic frontages, the Greco/Roman facades once were the pride of a small town now marble is only used for kitchen-tops. Mid-West towns are not Manhattan the sky here is too wide, history gets brushed away under parking lots. Nothing fits when the modern gets squeezed into main street or when it rubs against the sides of traditional shop fronts. Locals are told its progress, but even the ginger cat who sits in the bay window of 'Ye Olde' antique and yarn shop knows better.