Under the City Streets

There are tunnels, runnels and drains and things

Under the city streets,

There are sewers and cellars where brewers keep

Barrels of French Chablis,

And deep below where the tunnels go

Are the ruins of ancient time,

Where people walked in the distant past

With their lives, like ours, sublime.

 

There are channels, panels of ancient art

That fade on a crumbling wall,

They haven’t been seen since Herod’s day

By an underground waterfall,

There are roads with rutted chariot tracks

Still paved with cobblestones,

Where the armies left, and turned to come back

In the times of ancient Rome.

 

There are harboursides deep under the ground

That once were lined with ships,

Phoenician Galleys with wine, that sallied

To trade on their many trips,

The harbours silted, the land built up

Now many miles from the sea,

And rats now scurry where sailors hurried

To catch the tide on the lea.

 

And deep down under the harboursides

There are caves that are filled with bones,

Where hunters gathered their animal flesh,

To carve it up in their homes,

They painted pictures up on the walls

With charcoal, ochre and chalk,

In a time when ice had covered the land,

When man had just learned to walk.

 

So where will we, in a million years

Be seen in the way of things,

Will our skyscrapers be toppled and found

By the folk from Saturn’s rings?

Will they say we must have been primitive,

As our cities are under the ground,

With signs of fire, like ancient Tyre,

No living thing to be found!

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[roarke]

sooner or later it all gets buried underground.

I too find these underground wonder worlds fascinating. there are examples all over the world, from more recent times to very ancient, mythological times. Histories we've forgotten or not been interested in. This piece brings it all to the foreground, enticing again an interest and curiosity.

[A Soap Mess Stories]

Your poem gives one pause for thought. I've often wondered the same thing. Good story.

[Valentine]

Wonderful and so true..It seems that they are always digging and finding something new to those of us alive now..trying to carbon date all finds is impossible..we can only guess at how long the earth has been here..Changes happen to our landscapes every day..I love this write David..Kathie

[Debbie_Philly]

David you are the master of Rhyme.... and you do it flawlessly.... this is really and amazing piece of writing !! :)

[Marie]

We are a second in eternity. What we built crumbles; what we write is wiped out. Only the spirit that created us drives on forever...

[Lena M. P.]

I think it is interesting that mankind, at every level of our existence, felt a need to build, create and document our lives. Even cavemen drew pictures on the walls of their homes. In our own day and time, we reach out into space both literally and into cyberspace to leave our fingerprint to say we once lived. After life as we know it is long past, the probes we have shuttled off into space will hold a time capsule of who we are today. Well penned depiction of mankind's walk through time.

[Tate Morgan]

We seem to think in such short term. i can imagine a world where we all look back and think the people of the 21st century were Neanderthals lol But it is the best we have and all we can expect so we need to take it and run with it . I often wondered if what we now know could compare with all we have lost to the sands of time?

[Kenilo Kent]

The civilization of Mankind! What a waste.

[redflutterby]

We are but a drop in the bucket of this worlds history. Oh how I would love to travel back in time to see the civilizations which have fallen away. Thank you for this mind tour.... I love my daily dose of your magical pen!!

[quinfinn]

entropy....we are a doomed species, simply by our nature. we crave enlightenment but are too immature as a species to attain it before self destruction. alas, we are a failed experiment of some alien superior race....love your take on this and the poetic way in which you present it. well done.