Relationship City

a fine place for a village she
turns the first clod let it be
here & so it comes into being
with the barest fore-planning
to be truthful yet soon enough
the characteristic boulevardes
thoroughfares cross-town tunnels
appear dictating future streets
lanes & public spaces though who
will build them isn’t quite clear
so slowly surely a city breathes
& lives despite the intermittent
natural disasters power failures
riots its shape endures within
its walls our new community &
culture is created similar to
yet sufficiently different from
those other metropolises that
its name becomes known its parades
& summer festivals the envy of
other cities (people begin to
migrate there pull up their roots
& start a new life & they are all
welcome the city grows & grows
then bends two ways the first an
ever-spiralling sprawl the other
its antonym the dystopia the
smashed windows & abandoned cars
underground solicitations & street
closures midnight raids on no-go
blocks in short the danger zone
& in this city the clocks all
tell a different time (it’s soon
to be demolished rumour has it
that a new city is being planned
but then nothing comes of it &
one day we will visit there again
& wonder why we ever lived alone
for so long with so few hopes or
friends.