tattered garages line the alley…
backs of houses…chipped paints of blue…white…gray…brown…
better days these buildings have seen…some boarded-up…windows replaced with plywood…doors with legal notices attatched…DO NOT ENTER….

drooping power-lines blow in the wind…
scattered tree-limbs…clumsy debris…chocolate bar wrappers…ATM reciepts…needles in haystacks….
homeboys march up and down the block in purple hours under a waxed moon’s haze…wandering streets with a purpose…to sell….steal….kill….
3 boys murdered execution style…line ’em up….

car- windows broken….
hubcaps stolen off a Mercury….abandoned bikes…left-overs to be picked through…
bums finding cans…bottles….half smoked ciggies….

and i watch….i watch it all go-down every night…
whores…crackheads…pushers…junkies….blacks and whites scrounging for fuel….
something to keep them going….
McDonald’s opened 24 hours….fillet-o-fish 2 for $4….
change scrapped -for….begged- for…fought -for….

forgive us of our sins…
forgive those who tresspass against us…
lead us not into temptation….
give us this day our daily bread…

for this was once a kingdom….
was once…
a kingdom…