Lecherous Eyes and Brown Bags

Music leaps from open windows, gliding down steamy summer rays. The notes have loud mouths, shouting out bold, rude barbs of reality. Hip-hop, rap, heavy metal, all crash... clanging onto the pavement below, then flip-flop like a wounded bird. Dancers trip the light fantastic, cyclonic feet never stumbling, shuffling along chalk-marred sidewalks. Words jumbled in banging heads- buds in scathed ears, burning hissed tunes bouncing off graffiti bombed walls. Pungent fog from strange smoke crawls out of long black cars with rears jacked up, rolling down scarred streets, bouncing up and down with a bad rhythm from a sad. raucous concert, jerking like a drunk chicken strutting and kissing the ground. Pig-tailed girls jump rope, chanting the "lady with the alligator purse," paying no attention to strangers staggering by with lecherous eyes and brown bags holding secrets. Young boys play stick hockey on cracked walks, teething on puberty and swearing like crude sailors. The old woman watches from a top step, hoping someday the broken bottles will cut through the chains and lead to a better life.