To Build a City

They told us to build a city,
from nothing but cardboard cut-outs of
houses, a lighthouse, half a crown,
and
nothing more.

2D buildings with no soul or heart
but the sweet whisper of colour,
a flash of orange, pink and blue.

What are bricks and mortar, if nothing else
but the body?
What is colour, if nothing else
but the soul?

So we keep on building as if there's nothing
more to do
but
build.
We trust in glue and people,
and all the things that bind us,
till we can no longer see what's in front or behind.

We twist and fold and push our memories of a city,
of hope and joy
into a life, we never knew.
A time we only ever dreamed of,
a moment.
A single moment.

To Build a City

And then we step back. Watch it unfold,
into a gentle, bubbling chaos
that knows no rules. But
houses in it a sort of familiar sense, a deja vu of
a life we once knew.