What Is Detroit Poem by Daniel Miltz

It's the Motor City
Motor Capital of the World
Fordtown
Motown
Hockeytown

It's lying in shards
Like olden Rome
Love among the ruins
With an abrasive outside layer
Of exhaust looks and horrendous faces

It's Rock City
Automobile City
Arsenal of Democracy
Big D
City of Straits

It's a rough, tumble, sports purgatory
Joe Louis pondering
Gordie Howe wondering
Ty Cobb mad as hell
Joe Schmidt praying

What are they yet
Lords of dust
And their inscriptions
However characters
Written in the clean

Desolated by time
Ambushed by flicker
And apparitions of the past
What was at one time, a magnificent sanctuary
Standing glad and solid

Detroit, Detroit
Yesterday is still today
And it's tomorrow, as of now
I adore you still, hi and farewell
The Lords of Detroit, looking down

© daniel miltz