City Life [poem]

It is 1711
and 2018
It is 1870
and 450BC

We have gathered again
in our narrow streets
that we may traffic our needs

**

We eat! We drink! We share our tales
we stroll collide and pass and smile
our gaze incessant all the while
the chatter billows in our sails

The boys! The girls! The air! The light!
The buying selling roaring trade
that hand and heart and soul have made
the ceaseless day the endless night

**

It is 1452
and 1923
and 34AD
and 1588

We have gathered again
in our narrow streets
that we may traffic our needs

**

The chilling dark, the empty light
wherein our deeds are daily weighed
from which our hunger shall not fade
nor bodies disappear from sight

Confront us! See our fallen frames!
Behold we frail and broken poor!
Pass by and hope you can be sure
you'll never need to know our names

**

It is London and Aleppo
Manila and Cape Town

You are Lagos and Delhi
Athens and Lima

We are Shanghai and Moscow
New York and Sydney