Dunes Adrift
by Odin Roark

Across the rooftops
dotting Manhattan's skyline,
where once TV antennas reined supreme,
opulent landscaping
asserts oasis dominance
providing much for the few,
mere fantasy for the many,

High up…

Penthouse gardens
indulge mortgage sized upkeep.
their hidden water towers irrigating lavish trees,
plants, lap pools, fountains, and Jacuzzis

While below…

Around the corner
fire hydrants spray waterfall dreams
upon children's bare feet,
as stray canines
bark with summer relief
amidst the little one’s stolen laughter.

Adults occasionaly glance skyward…

Windowed reflections revealing
high-rise awe undulating ever upward,
reaching rooftops where a new century of gilded pardon
pampers power,
vertical by design,
horizontal by aliennation.

For so long…

Storms of greed
have continued leaving behind
windfalls’ aftermath,
arid living erosion
forcing hordes of the innocent
to endure experiencing
trickle down anything,
holding forth survival's canteen of tolerance
down to its final drops.

Increasingly…

Dry throats of need,
reduced to whispers,
their outcries having once bellowed
through canyons of steel and glass,
now but dissolve into hushed reserve,
no longer able to plead for opportunity and justice.

Burnt throats of suffocation
eventually utter but gasps of silence,
their suffering ignored
leaving the disenfranchised exhausted.

Angry minions hesitantly peer upward,
see only the surreal tower-clock of Babel,
two black hands closing,
soon to converge,
one upon the other,
hastening finality,
where for many
twelve midnight will remain the frozen demise.

All the while…

Leaning over gilded rails from many stories high,
impoverished souls peer upon the streets below,
perky girls grinning in fashionable high heels
accompanying junior execs in Armani attire
atop their vertical kingdom,
having become the privileged
where the light headed have-alls,
never feeling the weight
have-nots must shoulder.

For so many…

Leaden feet sink further
into misery's quick sand,
an ever scorched landscape of despair
where once the thirst for living
labored only to last through
the next parched breath.

In the surrounding neighborhoods
expectation continues romping
in fire hydrant showers.

Hope remains patient…

Imaginings flourish,
not yet aware
that like their parents,
everyone's dreams
eventuate into realities un-wanted,
where sanctuary for the moment
remains a shelter, any shelter
to protect their sanity from
the endless dust storm
once again burying them
in drifting dunes.