Cities I Have Loved

 Cities I Have Loved

Denpasar four decades ago,

strolling in the night markets.

Families of all generations 

out together on a warm evening. 

Before bombs, hard drugs …

and synthetic sarongs

for the stupid tourists,

printed one side only.

Busy, friendly Kathmandu

under the shining white peaks.

Streets of shapely, ancient buildings:

Hindu, Buddhist and Bon.

Before the family, remote 

in that tiny, pretty palace 

was slaughtered by a mad son; before 

Communists, or the worst earthquake.

Edinburgh with the looming crag,

welcoming castle, water views,

and the small card shop on the Golden Mile 

with every known variety of Tarot.

Before the visible poverty 

overcrowding the streets,

the slums and degradation

described to me since my time.

Venice with its colour, its joy,

its bountiful water and thin lanes,

the masks in every shop window

and the art, the art, the art!

Before the cruise ships, the floods, 

the water-damaged buildings; even before 

the ubiquitous, proliferating (other)  

slow-moving tourists littering the sites.

Cusco – its mountains and music,

its people who loved and helped us,

its huge old perfectly-fitted stones; 

banks and businesses closed for siesta.

Before the country’s recent droughts

and recurrent, yearly 'political crises'.

And before COVID … and before I got

too old and unfit to contemplate travel.

Prompt #16 for the April Poem A Day Challenge at Poetic Asides is a city poem.