Devastated men once young,
Are now trying to climb out of that pit of lonely spaces,
And somehow fill a cup which has never been empty.

Young men staring at the reflection,
The lake saying nothing back-
Wanting approval- the hands of a healer.

Pour him another,
Light up again,
Numb the senses until memory is just a word.

Once someone's baby
Now all grown up,
Their faces long in the setting sun.

Millions of words being spoken,
electric bills half paid the city, a strange construction.

memories of cracked windows,
and small tenements with no privacy.

The metropolitan lights
like some ongoing hallucination.
Mounted machinery, categories with insidious intent,
coffee shops full of early workers with their heads buried earth metals.

Rome Reborn.

Acetylene across the sky
Vibrant constructions forced atop toward eye.
Rise rude ruby colored sun.