The Camera Eye [Time Machine]

I

Grim-faced and forbidding
Their faces closed tight
An angular mass of New Yorkers
Pacing in rhythm
Race the oncoming night
They chase through the streets of Manhattan
Head-first humanity
Pause at a light
Then flow through the streets of the city

They seem oblivious
To a soft spring rain
Like an English rain
So light, yet endless
From a leaden sky, yeah

The buildings are lost
In their limitless rise
My feet catch the pulse
And the purposeful stride

I feel the sense of possibilities
I feel the wrench of hard realities
The focus is sharp in the city

II

Wide-angle watcher
On life's ancient tales
Steeped in the history of London
Green and grey washes
In the whispy white veil
Mist in the streets of Westminster
Wistful and weathered
The pride still prevails
Alive in the streets of the city

Are they oblivious
To this quality?
A quality of light
Unique to every city's streets

- "Hello"
- "Morning, gov"

Pavements may teem
With intense energy
But the city is calm
In this violent sea

I feel the sense of possibilities
I feel the wrench of hard realities
The focus is sharp in the city