Inner City Streets

On inner city streets that reeked of wine

A fear crept like a sudden winter's chill

Knifing swiftly through the public spine

And severing hope, immobilized the will.

Downcast faces turned towards the dust

Lost in the detritus of despair

All joy of life expunged, all human trust

Dispersed within that claustrophobic air.

The hopeless, the abandoned and distraught

Viewed all life as vain hypocrisy,

A meaningless error by some enigma wrought

Or God abandoning humanity.

And with the stench of fear a hatred brewed

Like a poisoned draught from some magician's spell,

A venomous and seething anger spewed

From disenfranchised souls in living hell.

Resentment and revolt violence stirred

Against societal indifference,

Distrust of the authoritarian word

And the chronicle of man's malevolence.

How tortuous the spirit's growth towards light,

Its climb to reach the source is fraught with pain,

And the infernal fortresses of night

Stay the traveller, his climb restrain.

In the still and conscious silence of the mind,

Life and death, no longer our concern,

Are incidents we utilize to find

The One who waits our glorious return.