The City Walker's Tale

Cracked and narrow side-walks
and harrowing cross-walks
where cars don't care
if you have the walk light,
because they're behind air-bags
and a ton of steel,
and you're vulnerable flesh

all the side streets
are littered with broken glass
from human apes not content
just to have their drink...
but set on making the world
an uglier, bloodier place.
also, occasional
h.i.v. tainted syringes
like silent urban rattle snakes

you learn to take
only those streets you know,
to never assume drivers
will follow any law,
to always to keep your nerves
alert and on edge...

to get too comfortable
is to get a paupers' funeral

and in the U.S.A.,
it doesn't matter where you go:
you're a sub-human
in the blue states
and the red states,
the small "apple-pie" city
and the liberal metropolis

If you can't afford a car,
(you can't afford a lawyer,)
and they don't care who you are