Analysis of Detroit Flint Michigan
DETROIT
Flint Michigan
Within its brilliance gleaming
Cool black in lacquered polished silver chrome
Cranked up pistons bleached in summer’s heat
Hot steam rising as gears thundering
Beyond the crystal liquid neon city lights
Highways built stretch across the land
In hearts felt pride American dreams made real
Within its prime
Men in factories perfect their craft
Spit shined bright colored
Red white and blue
Wing tipped Chevy’s roll off
In the thousands
Sleek stream lined stamped
Made in the USA
Glistening in its iron steel
Pushed to the edge of the sea
Across the world they roamed
Hot off the presses
Home grown trade
Costumed culture of its day
Motown rhythm’s rock and roll
Hot rods slow driven mags
skid marked dragsters screech down
tar tracks left beyond the deserts
of the unreal made real within its memories
On the waterfronts crooners propagate
music of the soul through the
dark lit shadows within
the wisdom of the streets
to the people left stranded
beyond the hopes of change
Withered hands that work no more
glazed over eyes stare down as
Plumes of smog roll by their
post industrialized worlds
lightness lost to those without a trace
escaped by those that fled its coming end
the void of history left in its wake
despair in visions of what’s to come
Chemical wastelands left aside
Its rivers still run but filled with sludge
From the faucets to those so young
Language fails to fill the silence
Within its rage
no words left to describe
so divorced from reason
we turn our backs to
those who are our own
Alienated distractions
Signs of our times
Unwilling to wake
from our dreaming sleep
afraid of a truth
and responsibility it congers
we escape in denial of
our own despair
Back to the river we go
Floating rancid grease
Acrid fumes of acidic smells
Coagulate at the river’s edge
Expressionless stares
Empty hands reach out
To no one there
Carcinogens within its midst
Red rusted exposed in bending steel
To the river’s edge where mouths
Are quenched again
Waters dry as summer’s day
Turn to dust upon their
wanted lips
Corrupted cities that dwell in lies
Flint Michigan
Where they give pristine water
To corporations for free
To sell for profit fees
And toxic water for the people
This is how their money is made
Barren waste the waters run
Syphilis sewer stench while
Cities thirst
Neglected voices how will they rise
If their brains are all but dead
Opiated citizens the poppies
Made them sleep
Turn on your faucets now
Brown rusted lead filled
Dry throats thirst
And told its fine
Back room deals
Behind closed doors
Decisions made
A race to the bottom within the
Bottom line
Reap the profits from our blood
That’s squeezed from every stone
Back to the river we go
Waters diverted in the dark night of day
Without people knowing
What’s the price they pay
Vended contracted monopolies
Sell the bottles while people are poisoned
And are taxed just the same
Flint is an analogy of who we are today
A smoldering kindle where flames are born
To rise again some day
There is now no escape
Nowhere to run
We must face and decide
Just the same
From its surplus to its debts
From production to its destruction
The wars come home at last
Lost within the flux of time
Its own abstractions hollowed
within the sun that shines no more
the stainless steel gears glisten
Recoil now in bending grace
steel dusted rust in cogs of wheels
stop to a screeching halt
Dreams of past animate
a thousand automations coming
behind in the barrenness of its bleakness
grey lots grey beyond its greyness
blank faceless faces distilled from city lights
back to the river we go
putrid scents rise oozing from
Deserted fields
the Flint River comes pouring through
Its city walls to all that’s living there
Senate stalling’s congressional delays
Blind indifference to their constituents
Cloak themselves within
The vulgar stench of city halls
Within mathematic calmness
Of controlled calculations
Representatives of the people so they say
Parasite’s for their own special interests
Rape what’s left to fill their pockets
Within the framing games they play
Hidden crimes of inhumanity
Charismatic smiles within their
Smirking grins
Criminal thugs in pin stripe suits
Behind the legitimacy of state authority
Leaders of our dying land
Reap their benefits from greasy palms
When exposed their fingers pointing
To all but where the cause is faulted
Back to the river we must go
Tenement houses cramped till bursting
Faceless children widowed moms
Toxic water from their faucets
Rancid refuge from their cities
That tumble like dominoes
Of falling sticks
upon our deafening ears
Detroit and flint
A city like many others
Left behind to fend for themselves
Within the cutbacks of our safety nets
Closing libraries privatized
for profits sake within
Its desolation of our times
Failing schools where
children play amidst the
broken glass needle tracks
and flying bullets every day
urban schools that merge
before our eyes to prison cells
with little difference
between the two
Enfeebled wasted minds with
dreams differed explode before their eyes
Empty pastures of no plenty
Sweated labor that held the day
Memories past of workers on the line
Strength in numbers and picket signs
That forged the country in its time
Where heads were high and voices stout
With pride in craft and pride in all
Anchored to the ground it made
Reached beyond its shoreless shores
Temples of our factories that build no more
Mountains quivered among the many
For all one brothers sisters all
All for one and one for all
Back to the river we must go
Within the mirrors of its squalor
Debased divorced from within
Their actions legislated
Within the garbage of destruction
Twisted terror within twisted words
Bureaucratic mobsters behind the bench
And those who run their state
Through corridors of labyrinths
Deceptive orchestrations of their own
Orwellian language of unknown knowns
That comes alive again
Drumming drumbeats submerged beneath our eyes
Indifferent to their crimes
Stagnated lessons above their laws
Boardrooms filled with worms
Which bleed the wire bare
In uncertain certainty of our times
Perched beyond the common lines
Of bitter lands and their scents
Or from the consequences of their demise
Images fade the eagle becomes the vulture
Talloned claws reach across the skies
Ravaged dripping
in blood of earth and man
privatized justice that has its price
Quid pro quo is its prize
decomposition within its construction
when masks come off at last
witness of our times whistles blowing
to the wind
reset the kindles of its flames
the light restored
within the anger forged
we find the roots that’s been scorched
to find the cancer of its rot
to cut it out and make it whole
to what is there to see
decaying order of the day
from the factories of our past
back to the river we shall go
abandoned dogs in the call of their wild
howl in distant pastures
waste still spills at the river’s edge
drain pipe sludge in purple hues
fish lie belly up on their sides
oiled sanded shores amidst
the blackened stones
winged migrations pass it by
and children fish no more
the sun still rises there
crimson skies that leave
behind its remnants we still take in
miles to go before we sleep can again
let’s rise to face the day
unnamed voices find their voice
amidst the nameless names
in silences hiding within their risings
darkened rooms are lit again
descent from memories within
when delusions abandoned shadows awaken
initiation within these spaces now written
unwritten objectives toward
life’s creations are born again once more
Not yet defeated
Suns still yet to rise
Begin to waken from the night
What’s been lost but not forgotten
Can be rekindled within the will restored
That’s guided by its courses new
Unleashed to till the soil there
And grow anew once more
Uninterpreted molded new
In its own beginnings
When drawn to wake
To life for living
Reverberations soundings roar
Shall be heard again
The sun will rise as morning dawns
when flames are lit once more
They’ll shine so bright again
We will see their light in all
Indifferent to our indifference
Let us rise to meet our needs
Let us stand together once again
Beyond the raptures of our pain
Within the riddles of our age
Reclaimed birthright for life itself
We speak these things we seek
Essentials to life and liberty
Let’s drink and quench our thirst again
Untainted by our pasts lets
Reclaim our rivers and our cities
And restore them once again
Let flint and Detroit be our archetype
For our nation and its future
Let’s stand united tall and proud and rebuild
What we have lost
Through compass leveled in its circle squared
To restore our faith in man
Down to the river we must go
Scheme | Text too long |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01 1100 0111010 1101010101 111010101 111011100 010101010101 1110101 01110100111 0111 101000111 11110 1101 111011 0010 1111 100111 10001101 1101101 010111 11010 111 110111 110101 111101 11111 11101010 100111011100 1010110 1010110 11101 010101 1010110 010111 1011111 1101111 111111 101001 101110101 0111111101 0111001011 010101011 1001101 110111111 10101111 10111010 0111 111101 101110 111011 111101 1000010 11101 01011 110101 01101 00010011 10100101 10101 1101011 10101 10110101 01010101 0001 10111 1111 01000111 110010101 1010111 1101 1011101 111011 101 010101101 1100 1111010 101011 111101 010101010 11111011 1010101 1001011 101 010101111 1111111 1100010 111 111101 11011 111 0111 111 0111 0101 011010010 101 10101101 1111001 1101011 10010001111 011010 00111 11000100 1010110110 011101 1110100111101 0100101111 110111 111101 111 11101 101 1110111 101011010 011111 1010111 1101010 01011111 0101110 0110101 11010111 110101 111100 010110 010011110 1110111 11010011101 1101011 1011101 0101 01101101 1101111101 1010010001 10100110100 10101 01011101 0101010 101010 01001010111 101111010 10111110 01010111 101100100 00101011 101 10010111 01001000110100 10110101 111001101 10111010 111101110 11010111 100101110 1010101 10101110 10101110 110110 1101 01101001 0101 01011010 10111101 0101110101 101010 110101 10101101 1011 101010 101101 010101001 10111 011011101 110100 0101 0101011 110010111 10101110 10101101 1001110101 10100101 11010011 11010101 11010101 1010111 101111 101101001111 10101010 11110101 1110111 11010111 010101110 0101101 110100 010101010 101001101 010100101 011111 110011 010010111 100101011 110101 1010101101 010111 10100111 1111 110101 00101001101 1010101 1101011 1101001101 100101001010 1110101 1010 011101 10101111 111111 0010011010 111111 1011011010 101 0101111 0101 010101 1101111 11010111 11110111 111111 01010101 101001101 11010111 0101001111 101010 11110101 1110101 11101111 110101 0101 1010111 010111 011101 10111 011101110 1110111101 111101 0110111 010101 0100100111 1011101 01110001 10100101010 001001110110 01001001 1010110111 11010 11111 01110101 01111010 11010010101 11011101 0111011 010111 1101 011010 1111 11110 0010101 11101 01111101 111111 111101 1111101 0101100100 11111101 111010101 01011101 010101101 0111101 111111 010110100 110110101 01011011 01101001010 0011101 1100111010 110100110 11010101001 1111 1101001101 10110101 11010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 8,721 |
Words | 1,541 |
Sentences | 1 |
Stanzas | 49 |
Stanza Lengths | 2, 5, 4, 7, 5, 5, 4, 6, 7, 6, 8, 1, 6, 7, 7, 11, 7, 1, 6, 7, 6, 4, 5, 1, 4, 6, 4, 5, 4, 1, 7, 17, 5, 8, 1, 3, 8, 9, 6, 13, 1, 7, 7, 9, 14, 4, 5, 13, 1 |
Lines Amount | 290 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 145 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 30 |
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"Detroit Flint Michigan" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 25 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/128838/detroit----flint-michigan>.
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