Yesterday I walked past a demolition site on my way to work. They've been going for a couple of weeks now but yesterday it struck me just how invested particular sites and buildings are with past histories, people's lives and stories. The exposure of internal walls and decoration not normally on view hinted at hidden lives. This morning I am working from home and the view outside is rather more peaceful and in an interesting counterpoint to yesterday's destruction. Today the trees seem full of life, despite their still bare branches. Bud tips are just beginning to peep through in places and the potential of the spring and summer growth ahead is already there in all its fullness.
Demolition site (from yesterday).
Steel crumples, walls crumble
and dust billows over the site.
The heavy hand of the machinery
exposes past lives.
And a quieter scene today, building (and growing) not breaking.
Branches curve skyward in consummate strategy
and buds begin to burst through.
Two very fine poems. They contrast very well in how they achieve their effect.
ReplyDeleteI think the lines:
"The heavy hand of the machinery
exposes past lives."
moved me the most.