by Michael R. Allen

Read by the author at the Dowtown Defense Fund Fundraiser held at Gallery Urbis Orbis on June 25, 2005.

clever cascade of steel,
concrete, marble
the destiny we fought for
comes down to this rubble?

we've cleared forests, plowed fields
moved iron miles overland
stripped earth of its lodes
sent our brothers and sisters to
sweat and die

all for this moment
in which our hands feel
small and immobile
and our city’s prominent class
strips the city fabric
just a little more -- just enough to
show that they know history
well enough to emulate
its shadiest dealers and
ignorant oppressors

(they always
know how to be clever)

a torrent of Georgian marble
crumbling floors and dirt spatters
everything on Ninth Street, St. Louis
the wreckers arrest history's
accumulated resource at 108 years
and tear it into mere scraps

steel sold to China for $197 per ton
or to other booming places elsewhere
the precious marble, from years of
Georgian toil
goes to the landfill
the wrecking of one building
obliterates, scatters, removes

in the gesture that is demolition

is our city’s destiny renegotiated?
or affirmed?
our boom one of loss?
we ask the leaders and they attack us

as the achievement of over one hundred years,
countless hours of energy expended,
hundreds of sure-handed workers
falls on their whim
to the measure of their plan

and we attempt to save pieces,
wondering if our legacy
dissolves with the end of this building
and others
as sure as we are that
someone else’s legacy grows,
cheap’n’fast

clever to deconstruct, they say
wise to save, note our tired eyes

More Century Building

return to list of places: by location or by type

return to eoa