Dawn in Cities is a poetry collection to be published by Winter Goose Publishing.

Decline

I left a town of wood and brick
And reached a tortured city,
Heart of steel,
Soul of glass.
I looked into your kindless face
And saw no pity,
Just the frozen mask
That suffering never melts.

As hopes impaled themselves
On frigid pinnacles,
City, growing taller, colder,
Distant to the outcasts of despair,
I heard wild dogs howling,
Prowling desolate boulevards,
Crying for departed masters
Like abandoned children
Shivering in vacant buildings,
Comforted only by responsive rats.

And no voices were raised
As the city of abundance crumbled.
No demands, or pleas for endurance.
Only the relics of desertion whispered
The final moments of prosperity.

Journey

I have seen the hand of morning
And listened to its song,
While others passed unheeding.
I have watched man build his houses
On great streets and highways
And know I never want
The road snarl for my song.
As I caress you, dream city,
Your spires of power and promise
Hulk forbidding in the distance.
Your rigid face of stone and steel
Indifferently turns away
From a bus of shabby hopes
Bringing a seeker on his way.