Day 9 – Brussels Under Construction

Pedestrian Shopping Avenues, sparked in blue and red,
Ominous clouds boil and gather overhead,
“You can get through, but it’s difficult,” I said. Construction lines and markers,
blocked the way instead.

It’s over there that we wanted to be,
away from the holes in the pavement
you see,
there’s x’s and chalk lines and caution signs here,
and a cafe divider fence,
that’s even more clear.

a vehicle stands at the threshold from here,
as if waiting permission to move into the clear.
A frozen tableau of a city is near,
with people,
who are walking the middle,
no fear.

Is it future or past that’s depicted so bright
as if it were idylic, stormy but light?
It shimmers and wanes, as if effervescent somehow,
A timeline divides the there from the now.

Continue forwards in backwards,
away from this scene,
Keep your eyes on the past,
so it stays there serene.

It’s an illusion that wavers but calls us “come back!”
“Remember, the beauty, of life as it was,” “It still exists, it’s real, can’t you see us?” it screams, We get past the construction, but only in dreams.

Returning, we wonder what it is we have seen,
A past, that perhaps, never has been.
“It’s better to be here, away from the there” We say when we’re here, but never from there.