City blues

This is a city that seems to take
Forever to build, as it rises skyward
The cranes overlook the towers
Like monsters who are out to devour
All the ageing, the decrepit and the infirm
Who keep wondering where the places
They have known all these years are
The mall looks like a temple of desire
Where window shoppers outnumber
Those who come to splurge
The youth who come to gawk
Do not know the pain
Of changes they are not part of
Over which they have no say
They do not know how many
Pop and mom stores have been lost
For this monstrosity of extravagance
Guzzling power, water and air
As if it is in the first world
When all around is third world.