Urban Decay Fragments
after Arthur Rimbaud
In the fetid alleys where shadows writhe like blackened tendrils on crumbling walls the stench of rotting fruit and urine clings to the skin of passersby like a bad omen
The city’s viscera are exposed to the air a mess of rusted pipes and shattered dreams the distant thrum of factories pulsates through the stagnant air like a diseased heart
In this bleak landscape of rust and grime I search for a glimpse of the transcendent a spark of beauty in the squalid chaos but it’s elusive as a rat in the sewers
The streets are a labyrinth of broken promises where the damned and the desperate roam free their eyes sunken their skin sallow and gray like the stones that pave the streets they haunt
I took the themes of urban decay and the search for transcendence from Arthur Rimbaud, and tried to capture his sense of linguistic experimentation and discordant music in the poem. I also drew inspiration from his use of vivid, unsettling descriptions of nature and the human body.