Saturday, October 10, 2009

Ramshack Trashcans

There- Among the tottering
ramshackle four-story brick row homes
built from misery and missed opportunities,

There- Trashcans overflow
amid downpours and indifference:
gutterjunk needles thick with disease
don't get caught out in the street!
wet walls of dry pastels
as poisoned blood
now collects in puddles.

In the dark and busted though thick glass
ground to clay choked like bone dry mud,
cleft knives a harbinger of centuries-long neglect
played out in front of your eyes.
A mural: cube men hungering for labor
swinging thick hammers one hundred pounds hard,
but dirt-caked the color of iron-red
cramped with living flesh amid the confusing and violent,
like a theater stage for all mankind.

And the children carry upon their shoulders
our dust wept sherry-caramel apple filling flavored lives.

No comments: