City People

Ha Ha!  Here's another old poem from my past.  This time it's from 1966.  A long time ago when I was very young.

City People

The people I saw were all coloured grey
Their faces had no faces to see
Their blank reflections I can't recollect
Their joy was not mine to see.

The people I saw wore no characters at all
I couldn't find one wide-opened mind
And when I spoke they were silent
Their ears could not hear
As the stranger, no joy could I find.

To their homes by some mysterious magnetic force
Each sunset they were drawn day by day
In the city's narrow gulleys through the roads they were lured
Each person on his own homeward way.

For many days I inspected with a curious notion
Believing I'd find all's to find.
Too long in the city I rejected my project
And returned with an unfulfilled mind.

I still can't understand the people in cities
And the way each heart seems to beat
How with freedom in country and joy on the seas
To the cities, insisting, they fleet.