you know a city when you’re poor…
ins-n-outs…
where there is shelter from storms…
clothing for the naked…
food for the belly…

you know rooftops…
parking garages…
bathroom codes…
cheapest wine in town…
best park benches to sleep-on…

you know whose in charge…
every sidewalk crack…
abandoned house…
where to get a free cup of joe…
a doughnut or two…

you know the best corners…
rules of these streets…
never forgetting a thing…
always on the look-out…
whose pushin’ and whose buyin’…

you know junkies in Union Square…
bums in The Tenderloin…
which train goes where…
quickest route out of town…
jettison goods at a moment’s notice…

you know everything is temporary…
love is a loss…
life is a gamble…
Pancho Villa died for our sins…
you know the cost…

you know who came-up short…
you know plasma centers…
you know no-one gives a fuck…
you know time is up…
you know nothing…