Cities

[j56]

Chewing gum stained streets
are the city's freckles -
Our manifest idiosyncrasies.
Like the bright lights
which blemish the dark Earth.
Humanity's beacons
that counter the crawl
of dark uniformity:
In pairs, on motorways
illuminating intention and 
extinguishing the humdrum.

Or maybe it's just litter and light pollution.

[Weeded]

Hey J,
The first two lines are my favorite, I'm not sure this poems intention though, and it seems to drift from metaphor to metaphor. I'd lose lines like L3, L6 and the last three lines, and focus on making the first lines metaphor the central. Thanks for the read,
mike

[RiverNotch]

Chewing gum stained streets
are the city's freckles -
Our manifest idiosyncrasies.
Like the bright lights
which blemish the dark Earth.
Humanity's beacons
that counter the crawl
of dark uniformity:
In pairs, on motorways
illuminating intention and 
extinguishing the humdrum.

Or maybe it's just litter and light pollution.
First stanza's one long sentence, second stanza is bathetic cop-out. The whole piece reads compressible, especially since from "humanity's beacons" on, the images blur together, without the full-bodied allure of some bold philosophical statement -- best demonstrated, I think, by the unnecessary repetition of "dark". Perhaps:

Chewing gum stained streets:
city freckles, idiosyncrasy
manifest. Bright lights
blemish the dark earth,
beacons countering the crawl
of uniformity.

[Achebe]

Chewing gum stained streets
are the city's freckles -
Our manifest idiosyncrasies.
Like the bright lights
which blemish the dark Earth.
Humanity's beacons
that counter the crawl
of dark uniformity:
In pairs, on motorways
illuminating intention and 
extinguishing the humdrum.

Or maybe it's just litter and light pollution.

Hi Jc - I find the opening metaphor hard to swallow because freckles:face and chewingtreets are order of magnitude disproportionate. 
L3 is just there for the rhyme. It sounds grand, but the period implies that chewing gum stained streets are somehow our manifest idiosyncrasies. Makes no sense.
The ending comes across as a weak joke "ha ha ha I wasn't serious he whole while". That's be easy way out.

[Scribner1]

I'm lost in this poem. 

Gum and freckles

Not the best metaphor to describe Earths pollution. 
I'm assuming the lights are those of cars and makes me wonder why the smog want considered as a form of pollution as well? 

And city lights illuminating earth, done see a blemish, I see as a wonder. Amazing that humans have created such an outspoken network of illumination. Mind you, no lights and the dark earth......is no different than any other planet.

[fanakz]

Chewing gum stained streets
are the city's freckles - I absolutely love this line, very endearing. Brings relevance to the reader
Our manifest idiosyncrasies. - I do not think this flows very well. It's also a stretch to try and make a sound metaphor out of it. 
Like the bright lights I would change "bright" lights, it's usually assumed a light is bright unless otherwise stated. You can use a more moving word, if you are trying to paint a picture. For example, "Like the [flickering] lights" 
which blemish the dark Earth. I would omit "dark" here. Also, since you chose the verb blemish, I would try to add more to the freckle image you began with.  "Which blemish our [long-faced] earth"
Humanity's beacons,
that countering the crawl
of dark uniformity:. I would prefer to end the poem here. It would become more powerful.  
In pairs, on motorways I don't know why, I can't make this line flow well when I am readinig it. 
illuminating intention and I like the alliteration and how it refers to the lights with "illumination." 
extinguishing the humdrum.

Or maybe it's just litter and light pollution. I see what you are trying to do here. It's a good concept; however, I think it takes away from the poem. I agree with Achebe.