In a dim light…

The vacant stare of broken windows

Empty sockets not seeing

Lifeless – no calls to passersby

No glow of lamps in the evening

Curtains no longer move in the breezes

 

Another crouching nearby

Disconsolate in weeds and glass

Wears a plywood blindfold

Nothing seen, nothing noticed

Weary of watching decline and decay

 

Where are the children?

Where is the laughter?

No mothers keep watch

From the front stoops – silence

Hellos and goodbyes long absent

 

A few occupied

Airless rooms where fear huddles

Barred and locked windows

Lean against the summer heat

Air conditioners, none or few – comfort

 

Youngsters work the corners

Cars quietly come and go

Some with the fun and excitement of a parade

Others, desperate, unwitting,

Ride in their funeral cortege

 

Time catches up

Years of rejection take their toll

Generations cycle

Two or three bring permanence

Permanence, but not hope

 

Those who could, left

Others, hostage to meager means, stayed

Role models of doctors, lawyers, teachers – gone

Many young fathers ran away or were taken away

Young mothers struggle to hold the pieces together

 

Society indifferent in its ignorance

Misery unseen, unfelt, unknown, unacknowledged

 “Welfare queens” become real to the uninformed

Misinformation yields certitude of solutions

Certitude of solutions, but no action

 

© 2012 Thomas W. Cummins

Tags: poetry, racism, Social Justice

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