City Of Dreams

Dogs lay dying on
sun-kissed sidewalks
where hopscotch will
never be played

a baby cries on the
third floor of a tenement
while mommy spends her nights
on her knees in the alley
behind Big Al's Bar and Grill
earning the dough to fill
the hole in her soul

daddy's doing 5 to 10
in county lock-up
no one really misses him

in the cool of the basement
a gang of cowardly teenage death boys
brag of sexual conquests
they may someday have
while inhaling white death
preparing to show the world
how tough they are

2 cats in a dumpster
wage war over a chicken bone
while homeless men
bet pennies on the outcome

a teenage runaway from Nebraska
with a head full of dreams
and not much else
steps off the Greyhound

the story continues

hey little girl you lost?
need a place to stay?