Look at this corner -
My God! It's changed!
What used to be here?
A theater, wasn't it?
No - bakery, I think -
Hot cross buns and almond cookies.
No, no - a florist -
That one with the orchids -
Remember?
The doorway where we shared our first kiss -
The jazz club where I looked into your eyes and saw
The future?
Anyway, it's a gravel pit now,
A concrete hole,
A project,
A scaffold,
Construction zone.
Destruction home.
Bulldozed block.
Tearing down
Making way
Wiping out memory
and stories
and time.
Putting up
Walls.
They're building the future.
Future banks,
Future lofts,
Future over-priced world,
Future new,
Future hip,
Future meaningless shit
To us.
What used to be here,
Before it was razed to the ground?
Laughter, desire and broken heart-shards?
What was this once,
Before now plowed it away?
It was our youth,
Our courtship:
Romance,
Idealism,
Hope.
It was us -
Young and wide-eyed, all roads open.
It was us -
Talking of our future
over wine and ravioli
and shrimp salad sandwiches.
It was us.
It was then.
Wasn't it?
