Closed

So many local stores have closed
It’s not the way that I supposed
The neighborhood would look today;
It feels more like I went away

And landed in a different place
Where unseen beings did erase
Familiar shops and theaters, too,
Replacing them, at least a few,

With chains you can find anywhere.
The local flavor isn’t there,
Yet brand-new tenants in the ‘hood
Will flock, as builders knew they would,

To shop there, spending endless hours
Furnishing their tall glass towers.
Time flies on, but more and more
I miss the way things were before.