LIFE IN THE 'PROJECTS'

like sparrows on the streets and in caves

consider how they swoop and dive
and fatten on dusty pizza crumbs

consider the raccoons how they squawk and squalor

peck and fight for space to grow fat gray hairs
and live as a family in the wild consider them

consider the homeless man on East Euclid dragging

Giant-Eagle cart on the sidewalk every hour
with rags searching through litterbins for a meal

consider the hare the rabbit the crow and ants

with no pay stubs yet with no long days of boredom
and they lie in cleanest beds and smile at dinner times

then consider me after the gavel and the long sentence

living with cancelled checks crying over lost purpose
scarred of sirens and hunting shelters for meals

consider me sleeping in fields with dead numbers

consider me whose far-distant ancestors never crashed
in any trash but drank coffee with Carnegie on his birthday

consider me coming out of institutions that mark me forever

with a bindi that blocks my name from the list of humans
and to live I have to peep through thorn bushes and grunt  

 

© 2013 Padmore Agbemabiese, Cleveland, Ohio