Fire Escape Dreamers

Fire Escape Dreamers They see only what they need That desire to see beyond The heat and squalor The effrontery to our species' senses The sentient beings whose 2nd bedroom Remains the fire escape How haunting The mangy dog sniffing the gutter below Ribs needing something besides vanishing hair To protect his fragile existence His pride long gone Like the optimistic glow of a downtrodden eye Slowly closing in the darkness of lost hope Yet Somehow The animal survives Knows no towel to throw Not ropes to hang upon No round bell of ending to depend upon We contemplate High above TV antennae sway precariously Moon's glow the spotlight This era of cable Beyond reach HD a dream Rabbit ears struggling to survive Yet another era of poverty For such mutual survivors Resting on window sills Splayed on cast iron escapes Atop pillow and laundry The square screen offering fantasy survival Providing dreams in the bed of hope Even though void of reality So innocent They survive greed's harsh weapons Enduring further nights of longing Endemic to Manhattan's perpetual struggle Syria's Athens' Perhaps even tomorrow's Kenya When does the glad hand of deception disappear The reach of power's greed meet its end? To talk To negotiate To be human Some believe Remains futility's endowment Never perhaps an epiphanous platform But fire escapes around the world Will always afford relief for the moment Trusting someday There will be No need For such painful dreaming