Yazzi Gokcemen

Shadows in the urban smoke

They grow from the gravel.
Twisted and distorted monsters;
Determined for their glass talons and brick fists to be the highest.
Reflected in the windows – warped images of swarming people
Inside, lights blink on and off, blinds yawn open and clamp shut.
They come, stealing the trees

The sky is black.
Vehicles, coughing and spluttering, crawl along roads.
Only a single bar of light can escape from the sun,
It slices through the muddied river, which brims with debris.
Rain, no longer transparent, stings.
The air is still, wind does not blow anymore.

People flood the city;
they move as one herd, but each travels alone;
Some shuffle, some stride .
A cacophony of murmurs play an orchestra of untuned instruments.
Unaware and oblivious, their ears don’t hear, their eyes don’t see
It’s just shadows in the urban smoke.