Puri Beta Town Square Junction Central Business District E-Xtainment Centre

The shock has faded from the applegreen                of children's water-spray guns

From the hot-pink of ice-cream cones                now pale like the palm of their hands

The children's eyes have lost                their palimpsest whiteness

The blacks acquired the brown                of the streets where they ran

Are colours the foundation                of a developing, failing world?

As Raden Saleh's pigmies are to the revolution                of his repulsion for the Dutch?

Are they ignored signatures                at the back of a canvas?

Why have they neglected to put the names in full?

Are they not missing the pieces in this puzzle, as a rule?

I find this city sad

But no sadder than those faded American Splendors on DVD stands