What Used To Be Here?

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?