sometimes i am also downtown
in all undercity and brick
cigarette sidewalk sewer perfume
seedy bookstore, street chic boutique
standing, selling streetcorners
hey, gotta a dollar? i pay you
back next week
a river runs down the length
of my side, flowing swift and wide
sometimes i am also downtown
along with all this nature inside
sometimes i am also downtown
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12 responses to “sometimes i am also downtown”
Very creative
Thank you Natalie 💙
I can very much relate to this, Michael.
Is it something to do with being born in a small country town, but growing up in the suburbs of a big city; something in the DNA?
I don’t know, but it’s a dichotomy.I find that I miss those gritty interactions. Something about being forced to be in close proximity to a larger group of people (but not in a crowd) forms a different kind of comaraderie than living in the suburbs. Walking and public transit take the place of driving and there’s just a different attitude in that simple act alone. I spent summers out in Montana on ranch country, so I got the full gamut of community.
It changes the “energy” you experience and you end up developing respect for all of the flavors.
Yes, I think you’re spot on regarding ‘energy’ of a place. I don’t know if it’s the same for you but, when I used to visit relatives back in East Anglia, you could actually feel how the pace of life was slower, calmer, and the way people interacted was somehow different, especially when it came to farming relatives.
There are unspoken rules that everyone agrees to, whether they know it or not. Plus, everyone knows everyone’s business.
Bad thing or not? I think viewpoints change with age – certainly the desire to be a community still lies deeply rooted. A few weeks ago we had a large wild fire after weeks without rain which destroyed a few hundred acres of land and several properties and it was amazing to see how, suddenly, people (well a lot anyway) seemed to put aside their own issues to pull together.
It can be a bad thing, but doesn’t have to go that way. As you said, people can overcome the negatives with the right mindset. It’s always those communities with low thresholds for privacy that swing negative. Sometimes you know, too, but also know how not to be a busybody with that knowledge.
Like this a lot. Reminds me of Lou Reed 😃
Thanks. That’s quite the compliment! 🙏
SO good Michael!
Thank you, Bella 💙
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