WHERE IS THE BEAUTY?

Where is the beauty in the city?

The rough roads are stained by oil.

Ugly buildings

made of steel and glass

have no heart.

Prisons they are, an artist's

nightmare,

built to save the banks

and insurance companies

$$$ by taking the shape and character

of a box.

Office workers inside cubicles inside a big steel box.

A white collar prison.

The billboards and neon signs

light the dark sky

but bring no joy or mystery

to the night.

Stars are hidden from plain sight

by the nuclear glow of the city.
Imagine, North Korea is mocked
because they can see the stars at night.

Noise is ever present.

The snarling traffic

and angry honkers

all in a rush to get somewhere,

no where, who knows where?

The air is heavy with exhaust fumes.

You notice it when you walk,

hold your breath til the cars pass by…2,3,4,5,6

hold it, hold it, hold it.

The people don’t say hello much anymore,

they are busy looking down at their hands

pushing buttons with their thumbs,

lost in a satellite uplink,

some inane subject as meaningless

as their job at the burger joint.

Soon the drones are to come here,
constantly humming overhead,
to spy on us,
because we've now become the enemy too.
Who cares about privacy?
Some say "I don't have anything to hide"
.....others fear the clampdown is near.

Block after block of shops, selling products

we don’t really need.

Told to buy stuff by ads

that quietly crawled into our heads,

and haunt us in unsuspecting moments.

We have become vulnerable to those who

specialize in planting corporate seeds

in our brains, but they’re not really our

brains anymore, they’ve long ago been taken

over by the merchants of profit and death.

Where is the beauty in the city?

The flowers are planted each spring

by city workers

in the median strips of highways.

Planted to amuse the cars;

that must be true because the drivers

never see the flowers, they are much to busy

texting on their gadgets,

even more inane conversations.

What can people actually be talking about?

Politics, religion, philosophy, art?

No, they are tweating things like:

“I bot a hot dog”

or “I’m goin home”

or “U see fun nu beer ad on Suprbwl?”

Where is the beauty in the city?       

By Bruce Gagnon