Near North Side--

Holy
Holy
Rats coming from under my bed;
With the pieces of dried out day old bread;
Near North side poorly holy, holy and poorly 
In the ghetto tho, there’s beatings within;
Vandalism's, burglaries, drug use and gambling;
Everyone fishy, everyone wishing
For the revitalization's…
In the 20’s used to be nice
In the 30’s used to be nice
In the 40’s used to be nice
In the 50’s and early sixties used to be nice
Riots, burning houses, vandalism's of business not once but twice
Blacks mad at the whites no more pride
In the Near North Side

In this ghetto there’s bearings within;
Bear faced people standing in line;
Police have little children standin in those lines;
Poorly, poor, hurting jobless
Hungry discouraged unemployment high
Nothing, hardly enough food to eat
Wonder bread is really “wonder bread”
Oily commodity peanut butter free;
Everybody fears, little babies tears;
Little baby in the crib waits for mother to give him love;
While daddy in them streets hustling, mistreating his Thursday lover;
Dangers it lies everywhere;
It’s not even save to breath the air;
Everybody fears grandma in tears;
Near North side poorly holy, holy poorly
We people here we are all alone and lonely;
Never doing the President we got he’s a phony
Children have more fun seeing bad guys win;
While sunning under the sun running from policemen’s guns
Omaha town, near North side nowhere bound;
Near North side you can bum a ride;
Near North side you rent a guide;
Omaha town near North side nowhere found
Where the people are fed up
In Omaha’s
Near North Side

11/09/70
Written words by James Edward Lee ©1970, 2019

Copyright © | Year Posted 2019



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