Freedom Tower

O, to see my city like a mall gone mad

Macy’s with no marble
And full of flat screens
The Museum Store
With its reproductions of Etruscan treasure
Replaced
Displaced
By Starbucks

“The Cellar” looking like just any other floor

Where once I went to work out

Lifting the lids of Le Creuset skillets because I couldn’t afford a gym

I am a visitor in my own home
Standing in my old backyard
Where even the grass has changed

The city streets seem the same but not at all

Hang on, you t-shirt shops
Hang on, you grey market electronics merchants
And counterfeit luggage dealers
Sellers of souvenirs and genuine Brazilian hair

Sadly, you are all that familiar remains

But sadder yet
Sadder still
Saddest of all
Is a brand new building
Tall, beautiful and bright

But like no building ever before--lonely