Verse: Crumbs - Take 2

This poem and Take 1 were both inspired in part by Crumbsey, and by a certain artist who talked about the origins and intent of the work to document derelict, forgotten and disappearing urban spaces..

There was a time
Once long ago
that I was in love
with a city
but despite my ardor
I soon found out
that it did not
love me

So I became
a surgeon
and cut into
it's layers
and analyzed
the million things
I found discarded there

the hospitals
with the sick and dying
the sewers
that were choked with waste
the rusting ships
anchored in the harbour
the corner stores
abandoned in haste

And deeper still
and I discovered
much more at risk
to fall away
the industrial spaces
and office towers
the chapels and
all night cafes

And deeper still
into my city
to see what more
it would reveal
I found a hundred
thousand faces
with broken hearts
no words could heal

The ex-cons
and the homeless
piled up in
the cul-de-sacs
the reminiscences
of old soldiers
accumulating
in narrow cracks

and all the things
that we envisioned
the thoughts and dreams
through which we connect
they seem to have
forgotten us
the decayed
and derelict

Met with anxiety
and isolation
melancholy upon
every face
I caught a glimpse
of my reflection
one more intruder
in this space

and thus was
my great adventure
in the city
that we made
I sought peace
in the corners
where it sleeps
before its memories fade

Once I loved a city
its spires and its slums
I surrendered to
its cold embrace
and fed upon these crumbs