Cambie Recollected

Just two days
all I need to see
the shiny people
haven't changed
much

since I went away.

They've been busy
these monument makers

erecting mirrors
making molehills out of mountains
wringing life
from the hollow holes
of desolation haloes

still

the new owners
couldn't scrub all the old
scars clean.

I found a few

haunts murmur in recognition

the wayward son's returned--

how do I tell them
I'm only slumming--

salvation's not coming
anytime soon.

Ken e Bujold

©2022

Author's Note

It's said, you can never go home again

Reviews

[Zayn G.]

Ken, maybe on another week it would've taken me a few reads to appreciate this poem fully but I'm passing through my hometown and I felt every single line. Especially "how do I tell them / I'm only slumming--
salvation's not coming / anytime soon." I also love your use of line breaks in particular, they really tie your poems together and make me want to keep on reading.

[Ken e Bujold]

thanks for the review Zayn. Glad you like the read. Hope your passing through not quite as bleak as mine

Ken e

[Stuart Munro]

Ken , your poetry is superb , the lines are excellent , and word skills

[Ken e Bujold]

thanks for the kind words Stuart

[Chris Shaw]

The wayward sons return. Not likely to be a comfortable reunion from the sound of it. Good luck. Second stanza has definitely got a kick in it :)

Chris

[Ken e Bujold]

thanks Chris. Not so much a reunion as me just passing through. But that said, two days in Van enough to remind me of why I left it in the first place. A beautiful city, but it's got a hard underside that too many of its shiny people pretend just isn't there.
Ken e

[W. Barrett Munn]

It is said don’t burn bridges; no one tells you bridges self-immolate. It is also said a prophet is not honored in his own country; but if you own a country, who cares about the prophet business?
I get this one two of three times over.

Winston

[Ken e Bujold]

such an apt understanding of what I'm getting at Winston. I'm back in my old stomping grounds of Vancouver for a few days before pushing on up into the mountains for a VC. 2 days was all I needed to see the "old w***e" might be wearing a new gown, but underneath she's still the same hard B I remember

Ken e