Gotham

 
Gotham

"So tell me about Gotham. How is it?
It's always been the city of my dreams.
But you have lived in it for many years.
The people there are different, I'm told."

******
 
"Well, I could tell you all the things I like
About the city. But today I won't.
So let me tell you what I do not like
About it. That's what I think you need most.

"But let me frame the things I need to say
In general terms. For other places too
May share in what that city has in store
For those who think and dream as you might do.

"Imagine then a place where money rules,
A thing that's common now around the world.
Imagine too the ones that claw and climb,
And those who then are mauled and left behind.

"Impatience chooses shortcuts every time,
And neither heart nor head can hold it back.
No legislations work, no rules suffice.
No cure has yet been found for caring's lack.

"Where time is money, there politeness ends
And rudeness starts to be the primal rule.
And those who feign politeness there are worse,
For they have studied crafts at money's school.

"Do not attempt to reason with the ones
Who long have left compassion far behind
And ventured where the self is rampant, so
They only sneer at those who still are kind.
 
"In Mammon's kingdom, virtue's seen as vice
And vice is virtue, when it yields in cash.
The virtuous, in the hells where ogres rule,
Will find that they're devoured or tossed as trash.
 
"So that is Gotham's slice of dark, my friend.
Tomorrow, I will tell you of the light.
But go and sleep on what I've said and then
Go ask of others what you've asked of me."
 
******
 
"The things you say are strange and frightening.
It makes me wonder if you've lost your mind.
I say that, you should know, with due respect.
But all your words, to me, make little sense.

"I thank you for those words, although they seem
To paint a picture far from what I'd thought
And even dreamed about. Perhaps I should
Ask others too, before I board the plane."
 
2015 June 18th, Thu.
Brooklyn, New York