Light of the City

[normanball]

There are so many houses on so many corners
nothing can corner the seeker within
Magical potions. Unshakeable nightmares
Each one is different. Each one's the same.

Fresh from neglect, the poor are laid open
on televised porches, on newspaper stands
Nations play host to recalcitrant shadows
foreign combatants from faraway lands.

Dreams in the crawlspace, crates in the attic
angels of gravity weighted with lead.
Prodigal shut-ins and practicing heroes
mimic the stubborn resolve of the dead.

Faceless ones pine for an image consultant
visages leer where the meek dare to tread
Summits rise up to be scaled by the lonely
if only to conquer the scale of their dread.

Main Street falls silent. Vagrants converge.
Money's a figment. Honor's a scourge.
Some turn to stone in the habit of mountains
favoring sky til fresh winners emerge.

Continents drift as they're known to do
under the cratered resolve of the moon
oceans enact their accordion smile
as conches record a promordial tune

Everything's different. Nothing has changed.
chaos and order's a matter of scale
but careful ears note in this eye-blink of time
how elderly council rings deaf or deranged.

When will the salt of the earth claim its city?
When will the light strike the fools without pity?
Everyone waits for the next shoe to fall
What if their shoe is the loudest of all?

Copyright 2009, Norman Ball

[j6ppc]

Thank you Norman.