Urban Poem by J.L. Nash

Deep within foraged images
Lie cryptic clues of streets
And unaffordable books
On shelves next’ faces
Rather forgotten
Somewhere within it all
The grey streets, the traffic
The pollution and the people
Is the message, a truth
Divined but hidden

Cracked windows and broken pavements
Surround the only part of
What is left
Dreams of home ground
Familiar towns with busy streets
Through the eye of a traveller
All seen is undone

No-one has noticed the decay
Through which they run
‘picture book memories of
Glasswalled castles
Make up the
Urban
Of grey street walkers
Not stopping to see but
Shopping to be

Emptiness on waking
There is only this
Half life of morning
To revive
Soul, desperate, dry
With its singular existence
From prophetic visions
‘Neath the neon lights of a city