Urban Revitalization
“Urban Revitalization” is my response to visiting the half-constructed Spar and the Formal Gardens at Royal Hospital Kilmainham, both in Dublin, Ireland in April 2014, as well as an idea I contemplated throughout my semester abroad.
I walked along
a crumbling sidewalk,
eyes riveted
to the barbed wire loops
stretching overhead.
Curious:
Does it keep out—or in?
Chunks of bricks
disintegrated underfoot.
I grimaced,
sorry for the unwitting
person who kicked
through dog doo.
Fragments of bottles
with labels torn
glinted in the sun,
and vomit dried
in lumps and splashes.
Along a windowsill,
or a seam in the brickwork,
out of chimneys years-cold
tufts of green,
a silent patch of grass,
or the twiggy line
of confused shrubs,
the sphere of color
of budding dandelions:
Life
coming back
to a place paved over,
buried in cigarette butts
and tire-flattened rubbish,
to a place where sirens
drown laughter,
life
coming back
through iridescent
circles of gasoline leaks,
through flaking paint
and caking dirt
life
coming back
to seek out the sun
and breathe
gulps of hope and air.