Path for Ages

The dappled grey concrete
Resists each weary step
As I trudge along in the hot afternoon sun

This unyielding pathway, travelled by so many
Bearing the traces of its long life
Covered by the detritus of years

Each step I take on it stays unrevealed
No print is left upon the dappled greyness
No telling that I was ever there
Nor personal signs of any other

This dull patch of greyness has only the life it is offered
By the hot sun of the day that heats it
By the rains that bathe it
And the cold nights that chill it

Not like the life that lives within me
But both of us weather all the same
As we grudgingly earn our greyness

Soon I will no longer leave unseen footprints
But it will continue to bear the steps of others
Not for eternity, but for an age at least

Navvies with bronzed bodies will come and go
With noisy machines that hammer and break its core
Who dig below its solid base and change its face

One day it will disappear
Broken up to yield to the new
Or abandoned to be covered over
As the civilisation passes
And new footsteps will travel over it unknowingly
And those who trod on it will be soon forgotten.