If cities could tell the stories of humans, what would they say?
Would they speak of Empires
grown from straggling weeds and crumbling clay?
Would they speak of Kings and Queens
and royal bloodlines spilled for the right to rule?
Would they speak of the birth of legends
and the death of heroes?
Would they speak of battles that tore up foundations?
Of fires that razed them to the ground?
Only to be rebuilt
larger and grander than before
like phoenixes of steel and brick and glass
rising from the ashes of famine and flame.
Would they speak of artists that decorated their hearts?
Cathedrals and castles
with swirls of paint splashed on their stones.
Gilded curls of gold arching across doorways and frames.
Rubies and sapphires buried within vaults?
Would they speak of innovation?
Of towering concrete and spires of metal?
Of roadways and waterways and everything in between?
Of sizzling electricity that sparks them to the core?
Of music that spills from their lips and echoes in their veins?
Would they speak of unspeakable atrocities?
Of bones and flesh and blood
broken and torn and spilled
to satisfy a Greater Good?
Would they speak of human redemption?
Of soft and quiet moments in between
when love and laughter can fill them up
and light them from the inside out?
Would they speak of the passing of time?
As humans live and love and fight and die
seasons rising and falling
with the ever changing sun and moon?
If cities could tell the stories of humans
What would they say?
:) Kathryn