Decay - Blog Posts
Image:The New Bedford Orpheum Theater, Massachusetts Photographer:Frank Grace Source:Ruinationstation
Elegy for the New Bedford Orpheum Theater
The Titanic sank The day you opened
Your gilt was fresh and tableaus bright
It was April 15, 1912 World war had not come Flu had not come World war had not come again
Merry patrons settled into indigo velvet
900 miles east northeast The cold water swallowed thousands While a different band played
Your opulence faded fast Dust caked, peeling, Stripped mostly Bare
You were sold and sold again
The rain came in leaving Plaster puckers, mildew stains, Mushy boards
For-sale sign clouded by rust You are eternally empty
Swallowed whole I tread gently on your aching abandoned bones Lighting candles And singing For the dead.
Convict prison, which also managed to be a psychiatric hospital
Abandoned factory