Stolen Scenes Poem by Deanna Samuels

For three long years my view has been obstructed by a crane
An incessant blot on the nearside landscape is a bane
Two buildings built of the group of three
Erected now, completed,20 storeys, facing Yonge Street
A gradual obliteration of what one used to see and know
The third, where ugly crane has stood, is fast agrowing
A block of cement and glass horizontal to my main scene
Will shortly obliterate the panorama look I love to view
More tall blocks have arisen or rising high along the way
The street transforming into edifices of a mountain pass
Developers have taken over, regardless of city needs
Uncaring for local residents, shutting out any rays of sun
Who watch their locale sink beneath more concrete slabs
The OMB, no sympathy there, has their own agenda
Over-rules town council desires and objections
Rubber stamps new higher and even higher rise blocks
Or crowding in three storey rows of mediocre town housing
Using every lot of land that used to be kept fallow
All the while, the crane is still there, my view will soon be gone
And then what happens, more congestion on the streets
Developers take their cut, steal our scene, leave more confusion
Retreat to their place of residence of country peace, tranquility

Written at Richmond Hill, Ontario - 18th April 2017