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Downtown Streets

These downtown streets

are like

broken promises

spilling into

the surrounding neighborhood.

They are like pathways

bordering

an interrupted fantasy.

They are

arteries

skirting the secrets

of pavement.

These downtown streets

once agleam

silent now

as a once brief dream.

The terrace stroll

of shoppers spent

cracks run like blood veins

through pavement.

The streets fall silent

in the limelight

of yesterday

crowds have diminished

into corridors

of decay.

Published inpoetryPoetry

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  1. Sad to witness the demise of a city. So many things come into play, but one would hope the officials would recognize the signs of a dying area and take steps to rectify them!

    • I think there may be many cities that have let their downtown areas lapse. I know the Baker Hotel and surrounding area in a city called Mineral Wells is one of them. A lot of people have written about the Baker because it is supposed to be haunted, of course.

  2. There are lots of streets like that, aren’t there? And they do reflect the lives that reside at their borders. Great metaphor and sad, Lana, but beautifully penned.

  3. You had me at the first sentence, Lana: “These downtown streets / are like / broken promises / spilling into / the surrounding neighborhood.” That is Dayton Ohio in a nutshell, a Rust Belt town hard hit by blows to the auto and steel industries. Specific to a town you know, universal to towns all over. The best poetry works on both levels. Well done! 🙂

  4. Well written Lana. It reminded me of “Oradour-sur-Glane” in the province of Limousin in France. A place where people were massacred. And till today it remained a deserted place, the history is too vile and no French government has ever re-build this place. I would imagine it is the most painful wound in the French history, so sad! There are lots of places in the world like this. it is waste of space, money is being used for war instead of building society. Such is a world where we live. Thank you for bringing this topic forward Lana!

    • Thank you, Juli for the wonderful words. Glad you liked reading it. It is sad that there are places in the world that have fallen either because of economics or because of the terrible tragedy that you mentioned. It is also sad that they cannot be maintained and reused, and how we are wasting space and money constructing other places when the original ones might be utilized. Sadly, we do live in a war-mongering world when there could be so much more constructive and better things that we could all accomplish together.

      • It is very true Lana, men will never understand men, and this world is showing signs of coming to its end and it is so scary to even think of it. such is where we live!

  5. Wow! Brilliantly written, Lana and so true of many areas of towns…so much hope and aspirations for these places which fell into decay and misery.

    • Oh Sarah, run-down areas, dilapidated buildings make for some super cool photography sessions. I guess that would be the one thing they are good for, a bit sad to be left behind as people migrate away, though.

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