I lost a city-
Cast out without pity,
It grew flesh and blood over the bones I loved.
The rib cage became lived in,
It bloomed with arteries that grew clogged-
Its fetid heart beat black with
Choked cholesterol ridden blood.
I knew it when you could see for miles through its scraggly bones
Imagined dressing it with your own topography –
Hanging fairy lights and draping scarves on dry bone,
Gardening in eye-sockets,
Making blueprints for internal structures,
Plans dependant on shifting sands-
That shifted,
Then turned to quick.
Now I’m on the outside imagining
The innards of a place that no
Longer exists.
It’s created a fuller being without me, I’m a foreign body
Expelled –
A failed memory now a daydream,
A place I’ll never be –
I’ve grown away and you’ve grown
Up, around and apart from me.
EmilyCracknell 