Urban ... a poem

Life in the city...

Urban ... a poem
by Dave Doc Rogers
© 20090130

Gray and white sidewalks
Trees trapped within islands of dirt
Paper and glass pushed into corners
Grime coats everything

People huddle close
Flitting eyes glance
Hands clutch purses tighter
I walk by

Shuffling feet
A bum looks my way
Imploring eyes plead
I look elsewhere

Four hours in fluorescent
The massive herd escapes
Parks, benches, little tables
Coney, mustard, sauerkraut, two

Five hours in fluorescent
The hubbub wanes
Little clicks of keyboards
Lights switch off

Same drunken faces
Stained yellow with cigarettes
Non-talk and bad food
Waves and last nods g'night

Neon flares
Twitching light
Buzzing grows loud then wanes
I walk by

Corrogated hotels of cardboard
The destitute rich for a night
No one sees anyone
They all just walk by

Up the steps
Past one lock
Three flight walk up
Two locks I'm in

City street lights shine
Vacant eyes stare
Inebriated zombies stagger
People walk fast by slow moving cars

Staring out my window
One more butt
One more bottle
Time slips by

Author's Note

Urban ... a poem

Reviews

[TL Boehm]

again. I read Hogwarts...today...and now this, coming off of your political and faith essays, seeing the ground you can cover with your pen is amazing. I love the paucity of lines in this piece. It reminds me of those days when I would walk down the street and just take in all of the sights....the broken bottles, the vacant faces....awesome write.

[IPMONER]

i was like hanging in a trapeze while reading this poem, its awesome and honestly though my personal appreciation to the poem may not be so deep, i still got this chills.

[Ladysue]

Doc, I really liked the message in here. You conveyed it with such preciseness. The imagery was phenomenal and the tone spoke with conviction and disenchantment. A very strong piece of writing. Profound!

[Taylor H]

i grew up in the city/urbs so this is close to home

[J.Black]

"Staring out my window
One more butt
One more bottle
Time slips by"

Talk about the imagery I get from your work is outstanding. It's like a movie that I'm allowed to witness in a matter of 5 minutes.

"Shuffling feet
A bum looks my way
Imploring eyes plead
I look elsewhere"

I love how you picture things for me to see. How you can't describe it all because of the scaring it may do to my innocent eyes. There is things about the city we can look at and don't mind, such as art upon a building wall or train, but there is some stuff we just can't bare to look at any longer then we need to.

Amazing.

[Jade]

I loved this, especially

Shuffling feet
A bum looks my way
Imploring eyes plead
I look elsewhere

So true, isn't it? The things we love about our beloved cities are also the very things we hate.

Well done!

Jade

[Lena M. P.]

Well written. Emotional and descriptive. I can feel the melancholy and disillusionment of the plight of the day to day existence. Since I work downtown, I see this picture you have painted on a daily basis. You captured it to a T.

[Ken Simm.]

Every city looks the same in our island universe now. We all see these things but none look as well as you have here.

[Ravenskald]

very urban
:)
loved the write

[A.K.A. Peteman]

I like it a lot. Very 'visual'. cool.