Spending A Night In The Big City

 

But the road is long

And hard burdened with regrets

       Han-Shan

 

  

 

It seems now and here, far from the fields

Where nights gather light and the weary

Thoughts of another day's labor, done and

To come, into a welcome respite, the street

Grows dark as blinds are lowered, curtains

Drawn, the faint lights behind them going on

And then out, the sound of doors being locked

Less to keep strangers out than solitude in.

Even in the dark there are shadows where

The homeless cat settles in its usual doorway

And the street lamp's unnatural yellow light,

A few stars yellow too in summer's last heat

And haze, though there is no one to notice.

What goes on behind these closed doors seems

Rite and ritual, not the religion of the child

For whom the consequences of belief were

Too far away then to even be considered, but

The knowing through the long years after

That they have already been judged and found

Undeserving of anything like redeeming grace.





Poetry by countryfog
Read 1020 times
Written on 2015-09-25 at 02:40

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Lawrence Beck The PoetBay support member heart!
This fine poem is Edward Hopper in words. Well done, Fog.
2015-09-25



A poem that takes us places and places. Memories of the big city a"nd the unspeakable things that go on, especially for those of us who live sheltered in the safety and quiet of nature.

I love this line:
"And then out, the sound of doors being locked

Less to keep strangers out than solitude in."

Ashe
2015-09-25


josephus The PoetBay support member heart!
You write of a hopelessness and loss within the city. People are changed there and not for the better. The other night I sailed alone on Lake Erie. There was no loneliness there among the stars too numerous to count yet by glancing north and west I could see the great luminescence of the ambient light of Detroit. Removing its inhabitants from the shared glory of the night sky.
The last seven lines of this tragic poem says it all and says it powerfully. The sadness of their belief that "they have already been judged and found undeserving of anything like redeeming grace" even more sad is the fact that they can change but don't know how; even while remaining in the "city".
2015-09-25