The City Clutches

The streets trail endlessly behind me -
A prisoner on a tight leash.
A rubber high rise bends
To leer in jest through tinted windows.
Wardens wield coloured lights,
To hold the weary captive to their whims.
Conspiring concrete blocks crowd,
casting malicious shadows
From every street corner.
I've tried to outrun the city -
Reject it; forget it.
It will not cast me out -
And I am caught
In its continuous pattern -
Its infinite, mesmerising maze.

© Strauss
24/10/2011
For Magpie 88

image: Lee Friedlander, from America by Car

Jewelled Pebbles

Your eyes were sculpt

from polished white pebbles,

and adorned with a jewel

of opal and onyx.

Eons ago,

the jewel came to life,

and sparked with delight

and mischief.

Your eyes,

they've cried happy tears;

sad tears; they bore witness.

They've squinted in the sun;

Clamped tight in fear;

and swooned

in the presence of a lover.

In my despair,

I peer within,

hoping that you still remain.

But though I do search,

your last breath

long expelled,

all I behold

are jewelled pebbles.

Strauss

8th June 2011