Ugly Urban Injustice Poem by Jonathan ROBIN

Clothed in smoke and asphalt Peking ducks
anti-pollution regulations all
would see enforced, for ambulance on call
can't cater to health-hazards China chucks
out the proverbial window. Safety 'sucks'.
Mis- and man-handled boom pride rides to fall,
too many cities suffer urban sprawl,
- sink in many senseless senses - luck's
running out, as greed feeds 'come-unstucks'
falling life expectations sprinkle mall
and high-rise, cover all with sooty shawl
to leave behind waste land for cars and trucks.
What some would term an economic boom
confirms decay, wormed downp[l]ay, deadly doom.

Uniform urban ugliness, slab on slab,
stressed concrete pressed to duty stifles grass,
stalkers prowl then growl before last gasp
in shadowland where hands skeletal grasp
polluted air ~ there scarecrow trees once dared to ask
panhandlers if anonymous at last
could lift oblivion from who through life wear mask
protective as lost innocence pities our pretty pass...

Walls, eyesore scabs, once whitewashed, bright, now drab,
concretely stand, discarded, sharded, glass
peppered with papered-over panes, rehab,
pained, anguished shivers pass.

Asphalt jungle man_grove swamps, distress,
churches empty, congregations caught
between high rise, high rents, high stress,
low income, low hopes, lower scope: crack fought
for pitch upon cracked sidewalk sorrow paved.

Murder, commonplace, with crime express
delivery on contract. Safety's sought
with kith and kin who oft oppose, oppress
all but the favorite son when tale is told.
Few ease the pain when fortunes wane to nought,
and blood-stains bury memory's distress,
grave isolation caving in bright thought.

Once, there, some say, experimental lab
tested theories ‘fresh' for some sad mass
condo construction programs billed to last.
Shifty shadows harrow, narrow, grab
delinquency's sad h[a]unting ground alas!
overstretched societal elastoplast.

Littered leavings, slivered shards, hard stab,
in shabby neighborhood no light, less class,
grey grieving rearing torn from earth by blast.

Naught now recalls trout tippling spring, where dab
once played, glade lending shade. Today sea bass
sweat toxic taxidermic tears in bargain basement crass.

First version robi03_0109 19760401 revised January, July 2007 and 28 May 2008 man-grove stanza added 7 September revised 16 October 2011 Introductory Sonnet written 2 March 2012 see below for previous versions

Urban Ugliness
Asphalt jungle man_grove swamps, distress,
churches empty, congretations caught
between high rise, high rents, high stress,
low income, low hopes, lower scope: drug fought
streets of sorrow paved with loneliness,
errors conjugate misfortune, little thought.

Walls, eyesore scabs, once whitewashed, bright, now drab,
concretely stand, discarded, sharded, glass
peppered with papered over panes, rehab,
pained, anguished shivers pass...

Once there, some say, experimental lab
tested theories ‘fresh' for some sad mass
condo construction programs billed to last …
Shifty shadows harrow, narrow, grab
delinquency's sad h[a]unting ground alas!
overstretched societal elastoplast.

Littered leavings, slivered shards, hard stab,
in shabby neighborhood no light, less class,
grey grieving rearing torn from earth by blast.

Naught now recalls trout tippling spring, where dab
once played, glade lending shade. Today sea bass
sweat toxic taxidermic tears in bargain basement crass.

Uniform urban ugliness, slab on slab,
stressed concrete pressed to duty jests green grass, ~
pity our pretty pass...
revised January, July 2007 and 27 May 2008 first stanza added 17 September 2011 see below for previous versions

Urban Ugliness
The whitewashed wall, once bright, now dull and drab,
is sprinkled with dust ridden slivered glass ~
with painful shivers pass...

Who recalls springs, falls, trout tippling, crab
played, glade offered shade? Today sea bass
sweat stuffed salty tears from petshop crass.

Uniform urban ugliness, slab on slab,
stressed concrete grey does duty for green grass, ~
pity our pretty pass...
197601 revised 15 January 2007 see below for previous version

Urban Ugliness
The whitewashed wall, once bright, now dull and drab,
is sprinkled with transparent slivered glass ~
with painful shivers pass!
Uniform urban ugliness, slab on slab,
grey granite doing duty for green grass, ~
pity our pretty pass!

(1 April 1976)