The City

Willfez74

Padawan Learner
The City


The city never sleeps
Dirt racing through its roads
The bitter tears it weeps
Come to rest upon my clothes
It's then I feel its claws
Wrapped tight around my throat
It's dust is in my pores
It's air, enough to choke
The shadows on its corners
Trace the outline of a man
In the light you never see him
In the dark he forms his plan
And the noises that he makes
Springs your mind alert with fear
In the moment that you wake
Never sure of what you hear
The city takes your worry
And turns it into stone
Over which the rats all scurry
And the cats leave well alone
The cracks upon its pavements
Are it's fractured, broken dreams
It's towers of enslavement
Leave it's skyline unredeemed
The city houses people
In boxes back to back
It's apple pie and treacle
Beside a dirty railway track
It covers hope with grime
Underneath a rusty bridge
Where graffiti paints a crime
Coz that's where the spray cans live
And everything is grey
It's the colour that we choose
What the city gives away
Are the chains we want to lose
The façade of some glass
Gives the illusion that it's clean
That its modern, tinged with class
When it's miserly and mean
Coz whether it's a waterfront
Or a dingy B & B
Edges of remorseless blunt
Are all we ever see
In the middle of the night
See illuminated brands
With its artificial lighting
Beamed on artificial lands
It's governed by a figurehead
To keep its dwellers in
The promise of a bigger bed
Is a comfort borne of sin
It's fit for redevelopment
To bring us back to life
It's a complex of intelligence
That cuts you with a knife
The city is oppressive
Hangs low with Heavy burdens
Compulsive and obsessive
Fingers twitching at the curtains
The flowers on the window sill
Are a faded shade of plastic
Phone lines on the lonely hill
Criss-crossing like elastic
And nothing is as it should be
Even the ducks out on the lake
Can see the urban fallacy
They know that it's all fake
And yet the city keeps us held
In its unforgiving grip
It's workers have no hull's to weld
And no shipments left to ship
We're living in a plaster cast
But the leg won't set or heal
A prison full of empty cells
Coz there's nothing left to steal
The city never sleeps
It hallucinates by day
And on its dusty streets
Are where it's nightmares stay
It's built to keep you in one place
All citizens are found
Surveillance cameras see your face
And they're scattered all around
You're just a dead utility
Like a post box or a meter
They tax responsibility
And the scales of justice teeter
For you're a walking part number
And they monitor your progress
The city is the factory
Where the system has you processed
And when your shift is near its end
And you're clocking out for good
You thought the city was your friend
But it never understood
For the city is without a heart
Incapable of love
It's made from matter cold and dark
And it's walls are not enough
Enough to keep you safe from fear
Or protected from yourself
The city sheds a hollow tear
For the makers of its wealth
The city doesn't care
Dirt racing through its roads
The poisons in the air
Come to rest upon my clothes
 
Nuit froide,sombre, noire et enfumée,
dites-moi: dans la ville, le jour vient-il bleu?

Cold, dark, black and smoky night...
tell me: in the city, does the day come blue?
;-)
 
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