Block

No parking Wednesdays at noon and
The garbage lines the streets
A cereal box with cartoons and a
Price tag way too steep
And a fence that leans to the south
Around a yard with specks of grass
And a dog with more teeth than
Mouth chained up sifting through trash
That ice cream truck rolls too slow
And the picture's black and white
And the cabin up back still ain't cold
And it's mostly out at night
And there ain't no kids where it go
And it don't play music right
And a kid with a hoodie looks
Old under the traffic light
That liquor store sells Patron but it
Just sit's on the shelf
And that Steel Reserve in the
Back practically sells it'self
And the Arab up at the front
Don't ever touch the stuff
Single Swishers and blunts in
A package opened up
And a white tee XXXL make the
Men on the corners look tough

And the men on the corners have lines
And the women walk by straight
Bold black and red for sale signs
Posted up on the gates
Of every other Victorian with
Wood over the windows
And someone converses about Jordans while
Wearing last year's Timbos
And a Chinese takeout menu decorates
The gates with symbols
And the cats are feral and
Fat and unreasonably nimble
The trash is full to the top
No cans or bottles in it
Big bags being dragged down the
Street clanging and leaking liquid
Expired tags on a Buick with
One rim all in chrome
And an older woman in stretch
Pants shuffles along too slow
Pieces of flowers and a poem falling
Off a flickering light pole
And a picture of someone it
Seems somebody used to know
And a buzz in the air from
A congregation of telephone wires

And on the wires are birds
Sitting tiny and black
And tennis shoes from the 90's
Looking fine and intact
And a cable awkwardly hanging
Never reaching a house
And below it a stained up
And soggy formerly leather couch
And rainbow patterns of oil
Pooling in potholed cement
And a screen door with no
Hinges hanging hopelessly bent
And a Bentley dressing the cover
Of a car magazine and a Price Is Right crowd
Cheering on a television screen
With a big bat jutting out
And the color mostly green
And a stove where one burner works
And the oven should be cleaned
And coupons clipped on the table
Waiting to be redeemed
And a siren sings long and deep
And the chopper's double meaned
And the median is asleep so to
Wake and walk at strange things