Sunday, November 10, 2024

looking deeper looking past

there’s no getting around this

Portugal - at least where I live now - 

has seen better days


at first I thought it wild, simply 

unkempt in a historic sense: 

sitting in chipped tile bench

in a park established a

century and a half past

I was left to wonder what

grandeur the city once knew 

but newness, idealization 

a sense of wonder 

has given way to daily life


the derelict homes graffitied poorly

walls streaked with damp 

paths overgrown and randomly kept

broken benches never fixed

broken lights never lit

bins overflowing 

litter in the streets

in the greenway along

the Medieval wall where I walk

daily 

bright ideas established 

never maintained 


a lacking 

of pride in work unfinished 

and a mix of happy angry people 

and clothes that never quite dry