note and a dsclaimer...of sorts:
I recently, relocated back to the New Jersey, very reluctantly for a variety of reasons...right away, I was faced with the self inposed ghettos, of the Northeast, where blacks, whites etc self segregate...where rudeness is normal...and when I open a door for someone, I am looked at suspiciously...where my grammatically correct English is also vewed with suspicion...I saw beautiful homes, with steel bars and then I realized I was back in New Jersey...why do I stay?...my grand baby and my kids are here...in any case, I am on a five year plan...yep...I hope to convince my kids to move to either Florida or back to SEATTLE...anywho, this is a Poetry Wednesday offering...I am quite sure that the note/disclaimer will piss off someone but hey, as my friend Rusty states, "a writer writes"...
Poetry Wedn >>
http://sanssouciblogs.multiply.com/journal/item/361/238._
the children stare out of the frilly, linen, curtained windows -
windows barred with criss-crossed, decorative steel
shiny garbage cans stand as upright sentinels
neatly lidded
the house is carefully painted
flower beds and the geometrically cut lawn
show evidence of loving care
a white picket fence defends the house's borders
meanwhile...
(in Rahway, an inmate lies
on his prison issued mattress
his cell is enclosed by thick, steel bars
it is a dank and dark dwelling
the racks are stacked two by two
and line cinder blocked walls
a yellowing urinal stands solitary
there are no windows
no signs of outside life
though the halls reverberate
with deaden, angry voices)
inside the house
if one listens carefully
children can be heard, pleading
to go outside
maybe for a little hopscotch
or a game of tag
(children's goals and needs are sometimes small)
"just a little while mom, dad"
"we promise not to talk to strangers"
the voices say
meanwhile...
(vatos, derelicts and other future Rahway citizens
stroll and lurch to their destinations
while law abiding citizens, scurry
eyes forward, purses and belongings
clutched tightly
on sidewalks, littered with the debris
of addictions
as the police cruise by
watching them all)
mom and dad are tempted
by the little one's pleas
until they open the door, of their house
the house that is curtained by frilly linen
the house with the neatly tended geometric
lawn
where shiny, lidded, garbage cans stand as sentinels
and the house
is bordered by a white picket
fence
as vatos, derelicts...and law abiding citizens
stroll, lurch and scurry by
meanwhile at Rahway...
(an intercom suddenly squawks,
the inmates raise their heads
from their thinly mattressed racks
and a voice informs them
outside exercises has been cancelled
due to the latest gang violence
shoulders are shrugged, as bodies shift
on racks,
eyes close
and they dream of sidewalks
where they were once vatos, derelicts and law abiding citizen
strolling by...)
the art was lifted from http://www.meldrum.co.uk/mhp/identzone/bbc2/images/bbc2_crime_and_punishment.j
