Posted by Atticus on June 21, 2005, at 15:16:10
Marrow Sucked Dry
Hypodermic glitters
In the gutter,
Steel and plastic bone with
The marrow sucked dry.
Potholes look like track marks
In the city’s
Asphalt skin, jagged tears,
Puncture wounds, sculpted sighs.Up around One Hundred
And Fifty-Third,
Eleven-year-old girl
Took a slug in her spine.
Gangbanger smack deal
Went south across
The street, now she don’t walk
But says she’s just fine.Cops found her notebook
In a trash can
Not far from where she fell,
Spiral-bound, full of rhymes.
Her mama asks her why
The hip-hip poems
Have stopped, girl says they just
Makes things worse sometimes.Amid the cursive verse
Penned before lead
Stole her foal’s sleek legs,
She sees a pair of eyes.
They didn’t watch the world
Through this dark lens,
Didn’t focus on pocked streets
Where needle tinsel lies.
poster:Atticus
thread:516675
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/write/20050621/msgs/516675.html