Poem : Downtown

I awoke today to the unpleasant realness of it all
Downtown is gone
Vanished
All but disappeared
Disappeared to the steel teeth of a dozer
To the slow sure swing of a wrecking ball
Fallen brick by brick to the sourness of money
Or making money I should say
Changed forever for the prospect of a dollar
Even the homeless now pay-up for a permit to beg
And building’s that once shadowed me from the scorching afternoon sun
Are gone
Long gone
Gone to this thing the people call progress
The awnings and overhangs that once sheltered me from the rain
Shelter me no more
No more is the thought that I can stop for a minute to get dry
For now, the eye in the sky sends someone out to politely tell me to leave
It seems shelters of any kind cost something these days
If you’re not a customer, you better keep walking
No longer do I see hand painted signs standing out with such beauty
Their bright burst of creative color has been replaced by neon and plastic
No longer do I walk on the sidewalks cracked from the pressures of time
Or see scratched written names from kid’s small fingers dressing the once wet cement
Followed by years scratched in older than I
Now all that I see is perfectly dull
Everything is nice and new and full of no character
Shiny and clean
Just the way big business likes it
Passing through now is like being lost in a land of the future
A land I would have never imagined
A place so bizarre when compared to the good memories of the past
What a strange new place my town has become
Or now is it my town at all?