Downtown

From the book, Stuff That Matters, 2010

This is the original version of the poem I wrote when I was just 18. I had just moved out on my own to a slum apartment building in the downtown core. I spent many late nights down by the waterfront and was amazed at this entirely different world I had stumbled across. And even though I had never witnessed this other night life, I guess my past and upbringing had prepared me for what most wish not to think about as I was curious, scared and yet, not at all surprised. Over the years I was able to rewrite it and make it better but.....There is something important about hanging on to an 18 year old perspective of life and so I left it alone as originally written. Even though it is not very good, I am glad I left it as I first wrote it.

Downtown

I took a walk on a warm summer night
Never knowing what things I might find
I found a symphony cast in the shadows
And an underground world alive
Of constant duals and makeshift rules
Where winners claim an empty prize
And the losers relinquish nothing
Since emptiness can always be revised
Savaouring the night and safe in the crowd
Always nearby yet they seem so distant
No place to be with their life and it is free
And to society's scorn made resistant
Some are hungry and some are hunted
A few are victims of their own demise
Running away or trying to find home
Some dreams are meant to live but some die
The alarm is sounded when the heat is on
It is now time they were unseen and unheard
They scatter for a time but are never gone
That perception of reality that is blurred
Day after day and then night after night
A life lived and no chance for change
And tonight as another one joins their ranks
Will we ever figure out who is to blame


At the age of 46 I realize that the words chosen could be different, but nothing has really changed. The numbers have just mutiplied.