Concrete shattered,
the asphault beginning to melt in the summer sun,
tenrils of fear sneaking like
poison ivy
through the stained ground.
And it seemed like
vanilla vodka could compliment
the grains of sand that never blew into town.
There was no salt air
to breathe, because all you could inhale
was cigarette smoke;
Children swallowed cancer;
broken glass stuck to those
empty buildings,
crumbling beneath the weight of
rush hour traffic
and kids that wanted to say no
and always thought they could[n't] have.
Beneath the city,
it seemed like there could never be escape
because all you could taste were
smoke screens and fire alarms.
And I remember reading
that the cities would break into pieces,
asphault would give way to
broken bricks,
ivy climbing telephone poles,
become a jungle that was more than just concrete,
if we blew away on the wind.
Author notes
LiesofDevotion
The World Without Us says that the cities that we made would start to degenerate really quickly as soon as we all disappeared...
After I read that, I just had this image of concrete shattering, and ivy climbing over all the buildings, and all the bricks starting to crumble, and jungle plants growing between the cracks... and I thought of the first line. Concrete shatters.
It sat in my head for a week or two... until I found this contest. And then I sat down, and tried to put the image I had gotten from the book onto paper.
Hope you enjoy this.
Lizzy
A contest entry
- behind the city by flight.
900 points, ended February 11, 2008, 19 entries
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
...
Comments
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Hmm. Almost as bad as writing about global warming. And yet, your poem is so much more fantastic than my Enviro one was...as always. T___T
WHEN DID YOU GET A MEMBERSHIP?!
Anyway, fucking awesome write. I could almost taste the toxicity (LD50! not.) while reading this, and I felt so much more polluted at the end.
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this...
damn.
'Children swallowed cancer;
broke glass stuck to those
empty buildings,'
you're amazingg.
♥
monica
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*snaps*
this is written really well.
My favorite part was definately the could[n't] part.
it was the most memorable.
leaves quite an intense idea.
and the entire things really realistic too, well partially which is the sad part.
the only thing is, "broken glass stuck to those
empty building(s?),"
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Yeah, it's supposed to be buildings. I'll fix that.
Thanks so much!
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