he spent all day inside his rented room…lookin’ out a window at an alleyway where kids played kick the can…bums went through garbage bins…cop cars roamed…

saw people…Mexicans goin’ into Saint Patrick’s…little girls dressed in white…dad’s with black hair slicked back…mom’s wearin’ skirts…families gettin’ out of old pick up trucks and used vans…an old woman sellin’ tamales on the sidewalk out front…

and he heard rap music booming from car speakers as they drove through stop signs…listened to black girls laughin’ as they jumped rope…their mom’s out in weedy front yards with hands on thick hips…

old boarded up houses ‘cross the street…with storefront white washed windows…for rent signs…call this number…everyone lookin’ for a buck…

he spent all day inside his rented room…