The city’s twilight: suburbia's goodbye

The Lights gleam and autos roar
We are nameless
Just strangers lost in the crowd
Though we’ve always been known before
Twilight in the city is far from
The suburbs we used to know

Colonial houses, monotonous yards.
Apartment complexes
And white picket fences.
With parking garages
at least 10 miles from the freeway
Which may or may not have cars.
And street musicians
Never see
The mothers dropping kids off at school
And homeless drunks
Now the norm.
Strip malls and patches of forest
Now dives, and a concrete slabs
A nightlife never once before.

And the desert children ponder,
They always wonder
What goes on the south side of the mountains
After dusk
where freeways choke
when 12 strikes the 4
until 8
4 ticks more.

They’ll never know,
Until they grow tired
Tired of window glaring
Tired of being caged
In the sea of identical
And want to move on
And become alive.