Poem : Walking Dazed In The City

Blue shadows seem to smear softly on the inside
Inside the refection of a blackbird’s eyes
The dust covered raven
Looks inward to the depths of my soul
As I walk past him with a racing mind
Dopamine pushed to the limits
The limits one puts on obsessive thinking at full speed
God speed
And I know, it can’t be turned off at this point
Flowing like the Amazon
The muddy brown river of power
So, I keep walking and looking for the city I once knew
Hoping I will start to calm down
To relax
Yet all I see is the decay of this once bustling place
Brown glass from broken beer bottles
Scattered in the streets from last night’s brawls
Shining like diamonds far into the distance
And the buildings of old are still standing
With their red-fire-clay-brick and mortar of gray
They seem to be waiting for something
Perhaps the wrecking ball
For they’ve grown tired of housing the drug users and homeless
Sleeping in their bowels of darkness
With rats crawling about
Or prostitutes working for their next hit of rock
And their outside walls are lined with dark shadowy holes
Where windows once were
Where hope for the working class floated right out of
Long, long, ago
When the jobs all disappeared
So, I sit and wait for the bus now
Looking out on the streets of the city as clouds roll in from the west
Asphalt stained with hot drips of oil and leaking transmissions
Run with a multi-colored display in the afternoon rain
Streaking before me like melting purple violets in spring
Like the smeared green wings of a hummingbird
And I wonder, are these colors floating on top of pollution
The tears of the city
Or has the city stopped crying all together
Knowing the jobs may never return
New homes, shiny new cars, and baseball on Sundays
All just a memory now