Fade city fade
the surf is in from lost town.
It rolls across the sky
it roams the streets as
a blood-splashing mist,
as a whale inside a belly
it churns the fear.
Fade city fade
the gray days are greyer,
faces crowd each window,
victims await their turn
while cinder-blocks burn.
Black is the somnambulant fright.
Fade city fade,
surrender your broken heart.
Your parks are camps in the sprawl,
the tented roam unhinged.
Glock law rules the unarmed.
You are too harmed
We care, but are not there,
and nowhere near
is there hope.
She walks ancient canyons
twisted steel monolithic spires.
Racing high her memory clouded
gray sky leadened in pain.
Like someone quietly loosen their hair
Let storms gather along a deserted plain, bring…
How her hands clutches as lightning gathers
Like ravens at a murder, sing…
she rises to meet the rain
From the cold steel day
Light delays in the canyons
of a cold iron metropolis
Metropolis…!
Run in time to the rhythm
and rage of the metronome grace.
Masses match, I see her fall in time.
Framed in thoughts of rain.
Down she tumbles down
her face frozen in the hall,
I see it all As the shadows wash in.
I feel my fury bury deep
In a nation of dreams broken
In a sea of stone towers.
Fueled by Mechanical Beasts.
Gilded in ancient chrome.
I wage my inner souls gold and rage
to heavens realm to ask why.
I shake the foundations of an artificial iron hell
And cry why, I see this clear
As the world blurs
Ask the lighting rods to heaven race.
My gaze scans across
This sacred power I bleed I quietly plead with
theses monstrosities
I reach and dream as something turns in this city heart
Souls oiled black mechanical parts
Cold is this artificial light
A thorn pricking my tender optics
Burn with faded images of her
I stand and see these monoliths
looming in deep shadowed gloom
I feel the cold of the obelisk
I feel the
thump
and hmmm
Of
This
METROPOLIS!
END
Haunted by its simplistically,
All the masses work for nothing,
Power drones I watch the meek alone.
Bare white the afterglow.
Power of blackened glass reaching for the zenith.
To touch the face of creation.
The masses must toil as I do in this Leviathan.
A Silicon made oblivion.
Thump and hum,
Cold white light in these aged eyes,
Once sky blue now blind in my inner mind.
Now only the passing stare she dares,
I hear the data in the cathode-ray tubes scream,
Cold is this light, I watch it fall in oblique patterns.
On the pavement of a city ordered in chaos.
I feel this thump and hum deep in my soul.
The shadow hangs there,
I see rays of an abandoned SON…
TO BE CONTINUED...
My cousin, Metropolis is jealous of me,
Megalopolis said, at the company tea.
I have more people,
But she has more sprawl.
I think we’ll fix this today.
I have put in a call.
They settled it fast.
They settled it quickly.
Metropolis and Megapolis,
Cousins, comrades, friends,
Settled it smartly and slickly.
And Megalopolis learned there is a lot more hurt
When you bring up in public your family’s dirt.
This Empire of Strangers,
This City of Drifters,
A sea of people bobbing about-
Some new, some old, some
Somewhat familiar.
Every night, we dream together,
But our dreams differ;
Everyday, we work together,
Yet never with each other.
And though we dine in the same places
And smile and greet from time to time,
We are all in truth worlds apart.
Lost in our own thoughts and worries,
We're all lonely in crowded company.
Early to rise
late to lay,
business minded people
who barely slay;
best of friends with traffic
who make their day.
Clicking show glasses of Ghana bons
with schoolers ready to buy;
Athletic traffic sellers who could
catch up a bus at 120
A metropolis
coloured with yellow molue and danfo buses
whose drivers are as audacious as the day;
chain smokers with throaty voices
impatient with co-commuters
when they cry "Mile2 Mile2!"
Energetic touts with special anthem
"owo mi da?"
Grubby fighters in yellow
ready to engage any fellow.
Happy market women in their sizes
buying and selling in faded wrappers
in loud cries of "langbe jinó o"
and hilarious children replying "I get belle o!"
Impatient road users in their dusty trekker shoes,
almost bumping into one-way bikers
who would often holler "oloriburuku oshi!"
Loud jaiye jaiye gbedu
with dragging notes
from roadside DJs
who are live for the party
and on Saturdays for the couples
A city with anaconda queues at banks
with sweaty odours from co-standers.
Konfam Okokomaiko pikin
#CeeJay
#BusyPenPoetry
The demons and ghosts
of last night
have faded with the morning light
A nice crisp day
here in the metropolis
Sun streaming in
through my window
A new day filled
with possibilities
I take out a pen
and write this ode
The midsummer heat
has faded
Now, city dwellers
can enjoy the fall
The High Holidays, football and
Halloween coming up
Autumn leaves dance downward
onto the pavement
A brief respite
before winter chill
enters our very bones!
Autos race by as bicyclists
dodge destruction
amidst the heavy traffic
Millions of urban workers
hurry back from lunch
shielding themselves
from the bitter city winds
which are blowing fiercely
this afternoon
Then - someone has a vision
here in the heart
of the teeming city!
She feels the presence
of the one who dwells beyond
before whom there is no pretense
She knows ecstasy
usually reserved for
the holiest of men and women
An unusual occurrence
in the metropolis
She knows now
what she has been waiting for
for her whole life
Urban joy!!
I wish it to everyone reading this poem!
Lost in an urban jungle...
Cannot see the gates to their soul
-to those metallic animals roaming
towards a fictitious destination...
A seagull disoriented
by skyscrapers' blue reflections
The ocean breeze is calling
The upwards is the only escape
Wings heavy with heat and smog
Slap Fate with willpower – mine
I will have to play the "Jungle Game" for now
So they won't steal my take off...
copyright@Iolandascripca2013
A nick on a lamppost,
a curtain tears.
Crushed pieces of glass,
are what this lane of memory bears
This story is like most,
there is joy, there is pain.
Good times, bad times,
a part of history it became.
A time of segregation,
one side black, one side white.
Which could only lead to destruction,
over the course of two nights.
A town that grew and prospered,
when no one thought it would.
As it became a city of industry,
oppression, racism, hatred it withstood.
The ambition to succeed,
to adapt and overcome.
Like all oppressed people
joined together as one.
Although some stood together,
both white and black.
In the end it would not withstand,
hatred’s ignorant attacks.
It is the story of Black Wall Street,
Tulsa to be exact.
How an oppressed people overcame,
how they were able to adapt.
Let us learn from our mistakes,
and not forget the bloodshed in these streets.
So that racism, ignorance and hatred.
do not become things in which we are doomed to repeat.
Co written by: Cilque Brown
Spent some time
in the country
Forest full of trees,
lakes full of fish
Deer walking by
as hawks hover overhead
Contemplating nature
has its rewards
But now it is time
to return to the metropolis
Crowded streets,
people rushing by
Skyscrapers stand tall
in the summer air
Taxis whizz by
as bicyclists weave in and out of traffic
Beautifully dressed women
and elegant men
dot the urban landscape
In the playground kids play handball
and bounce basketballs
I have returned to the asphalt homeland
where I belong!
There survives a burg, strangled by,
A fume as thick as thieves,
Where soaring glass stalagmites screen,
The adroit aggrieved.
Skyscrapers and broad avenues,
Where vast trains shunt and squall,
Where soaring glass stalagmites screen,
The vestige’s caterwaul.
Where night tide is perennial,
The gargoyles chill and ward,
Aged curves and finials resist,
Thick gnarling walls contort.
The monopoly metropolis, o'er the mass.
The sun has set 'pon the great pass.
All for one and none for all,
the old grey miser throws a ball;
...no peasants allowed.
Lights in the Metroplois(revised version)
As citizens cross
wide boulevards
city lights
dance on the pavement
Ethereal landscape
Created by the
shining lights
speaks to us in it's
own special language
doesn't seem quite right
that all those glowing bulbs
are changing peaceful darkness
into a garish illuminated
landscape
But after a few years
city dweller know the scene
You see - they live here
in this turbulent metropolis
where yearning hearts
have come from many lands
to prosper
If you don't lose your head here
You'll find a slice
of the urban pie
is waiting for you
in the heart of
this temple to humnan
ingenuity
You'll feel much better
after you partake
of the gritty flavor
our city has to offer
First version published in Nomad's Choir
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