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<\/a>The Unreal City<\/p>\nIn a dream I walked though the unreal city,
Down streets that were silent and desolate.
Stone faces gazed on me without pity,
although I was poor and desperate.<\/p>\n
They gazed from towers of marble and glass,
and watched as I wandered the empty lanes.
No one restrained me, they let me pass,
and then returned to their flickering screens.<\/p>\n
Over the doors were the names of power:
Xanadu Bank, Mammon Securities,
Ozimandius Insurance Tower,
Iscariot\u2019s Purse Global Equities.<\/p>\n
I watched the towers grow and multiply,
and rise up in splendid magnificence:
Alabaster palaces in the sky,
for lords of omniscient opulence.<\/p>\n
The towers stood\u2013powerful and permanent.
Ageless against the swirling clouds,
their steel and concrete reigned omnipotent
over the helpless, huddled, plodding crowds.<\/p>\n
Overwhelmed, I stumbled along afraid,
and came upon a garden in a square.
A lawn was surrounded by an arched arcade,
An ancient stone fountain stood sentry there.<\/p>\n
I sensed a solemn silence in the sun,
except for one white bird still singing low.
On the side, a stairway beckoned down
To subterranean passages below.<\/p>\n
I stepped into the darkness and I found
a vast vault above a bottomless abyss.
Light filtered in; and littered all around,
were bones and skulls\u2013scraps of human nothingness.<\/p>\n
Then looking up, I saw that the vaults,
spreading far and supporting the city floor,
were ancient, brittle and riddled with faults,
undermining what seemed so real and secure.<\/p>\n
I saw how the towers of glass and steel
were built on arches of emptiness.
Their glamor and power were all unreal,
like specters conjured from the dark abyss.<\/p>\n
Then I felt a tremor, and in my dream,
an earthquake shook the city, and it broke.
Souls fell into the dark. I heard them scream
as the towers crumbled into dust and smoke.<\/p>\n
I rose and returned to the cloistered square,
and waited while the dread and terror passed.
I determined to dwell in safety there,
and build a humble household that would last.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Unreal City In a dream I walked though the unreal city,Down streets that were silent and desolate.Stone faces gazed on me without pity,although I was poor and desperate. They gazed from towers of marble and glass,and watched as I wandered the empty lanes.No one restrained me, they let me pass,and then returned to their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
New Poem<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Unreal CityIn a dream I walked though the unreal city,Down streets that were silent and desolate.Stone faces gazed on me without pity,although I was\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2009\/01\/new-poem.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Poem\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Unreal CityIn a dream I walked though the unreal city,Down streets that were silent and desolate.Stone faces gazed on me without pity,although I was\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2009\/01\/new-poem.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fr. 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<\/a>The Unreal City<\/p>\n