Landscape
skid row
be it
a country road
train town
metro museum
scene’s the same
broken glass, rust and ruin
from the front porch
of their shackles
they watch the SUVs sail by
as the sun sets on cemeteries
and a stray roams wild
the kitchen’s closed
wash woman went to pasture
men are barred, boozed or buried
few find work
or keep a check
even the children know
there’s no Christmas cookies
or sugar-plums or silver bells or stockings hung
no colored lights or wonderland
just the black of night
and the stars are free
and a poor man’s pipe
the only candlelight
sleep’s a Savior
pain’s a baptism
and love’s a white dove
TL