Notes About The Poem
Victor Gruen was the main inventor/architect behind what is now the American mall. He wanted them to initially be community centered places where foilks could gather and engage with their community. However, like in many things, capitalist interests chose to take Victor's design and twist it into a parody of what it originally was meant to be. It was about shopping and materialism rather than community. Now as malls wither into desolate concrete carcasses, and America is as isolated as ever, I thought of how Victor Gruen would perceive what happened to his creation. Thus this poem. Written in 2022.
The Carcass
In this landscape, lies a nest
made of brown brittle leaves,
cracked asphalt,
and tire flattened filters
this creature, stands
broad shouldered and stupid
with a flat face and eyes
open so wide they are windows
offering a glimpse into
the bones of a building.
Yet there is a maw so wide and welcoming,
as if by design
we wanted to be trapped
like Jonah, deep inside
the festering stomach
of a dying Leviathan.
The air inside hangs stagnancy
like meat from a butcher’s hook
For years, no atom has moved
an inch, not even the neon
would dare to appeal to its bright nature.
This cursed Frankenstein,
this ghost of a golem
stays stuck in a vacuum of time,
doomed to the disease
we all lovingly call nostalgia.
Down the throat is a linoleum tract,
the pathway echoed out
Conversations, a background hum
Where Marcy would meet Chaz
at Corndog Palace
Little Marcus would suck
Slimer’s fruit based concentrate
Aerosol spray coated the shelves
full of the endless adolescent days
Here we were meant to forever wade
through the swimming crowd
soaking in drum machines and vaporwave
Now just a concrete carcass,
you suburban eyesore
the corpse of Victor Gruen’s
idea that could have been
so much more.
Copyright © B. Andrew Kelly | Year Posted 2024
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