The Light in Grey

Beneath concrete skies,
wary eyes wantingly pass over
decaying facades of huddled homes
once lively with boundless dreams,
where leaves dropped one Autumn,
never to re-bud
like a heart shrivelled by betrayal's
corrosive, bitter exhalation,
feelings forsaken forever,
rheumatic cracks in asphalt
swallow tawny stalks of drying weeds
brittle, like a serpent swallowing something
twice its size.
This is where childhood began all things,
hope constructed, renovated then
abandoned when realising that
this is not the rabbit-eared reality television
proposed verbosely through metallic rods
and grey-white snow
the American dream;
barbed memories of
the true past re-visit,
blinding from future that never came.
Alone, beneath concrete skies,
weary eyes wait, smelling smoky
hints that a
last candle may continue to share
its light if it could only be seen.

Edmonton, AB, Canada