I’ve never dined on caviar,
The finest instead, a Mars bar.
No palace key for this housing Czar
Sip water alone, not at a gilded bar.
The challenge must be taken on the chin
And not merely with audacious spin
A moratorium won’t fix the cause
Of that usurious interest clause
And gestures from the righteous
To address this crisis
Have long past worn thin
Though life is well-equipped with knocks
Nonetheless, the misery clocks
And platitudes from a soapbox
Won’t outfox a notice
Sliding through the letterbox
There’s no bright light from the corporate sphere,
Shining down on hardship, here
Though those with good jobs try to spread cheer
Their lives are not as good as they appear
With some sleeping in a car
Obtaining meals from Spar, just near.
Categories:
housing, ireland,
Form: Rhyme
My heart sore liken a goldfish bowl
an aquarium filled with neon tetra fishes so
you are skimming, swimming, through my heart
in due process
yet ever so smart
my love for you is blue
your favorite color is to
royalty astounded your heart
found it I cherish your colors hue
you my heart beats Forever Blue
5/31/22
Written by James Edward Lee Sr.2022©
Categories:
housing, analogy, appreciation, fish, i
Form: Rhyme
Some Babycham and Irish Mist
May smooth the way to being kissed
Score one for Mabel
Under the table
Though it looks like she kissed and missed . . . .
Categories:
housing, humor,
Form: Limerick
The Landlord Regime
They’re sick of the homeless they say the city’s gone to pot
But let’s look at the statistics and let’s see want we have got
We’ve got landlords and slumlords charging an arm and a leg
And then they wonder why people all over are forced to beg
They want to see references with a down payment for heat
Where does one get that when they're coming off the street
You need to have a credit check if you want to live here
We'll throw in a police record check just to make it clear
We only want the tenants who are well off and employed
And the undesirable jobless folk we’ll just strive to avoid
So how is a person who's on a fixed income meant to deal
When expectations from landlords are clearly so unreal
Categories:
housing, abuse, analogy, anger,
Form: Rhyme
Social Housing
It was a socially correct house each one
Had a window facing out and a window into
The next room, privacy is the beginning
of capitalism; and curtains were out seen as
fire hazards.
A loophole, plants were allowed and people
Planted in front of inner windows and later
Wherever there was an open space.
A greenhouse?
Yes, they began selling the food surplus at
the town’s square and generally behaved like
A new middle-class; it goes without saying
That the right people got a juice tomato
And thus, corruption began and a social
Experiment failed.
Categories:
housing, anger, angst, appreciation, blessing,
Form: Blank verse
A HOUSE FOR HUMANE REMAINS A COVERING
A shelter that has it’s coverings a top, bottom 4 corners;
Housing human beings protecting them;
Liken cave dwellers animals snuggle hide behind boulders;
Taken in by family protects friends;
09/10/18
Written by James Edward Lee Sr.©2018
Categories:
housing, analogy, appreciation, community, culture,
Form: Quintain (English)
The souls of the Damned in Perdition
Oft complain of their hellish conditions.
“TV reception is bad,
There’s no WiFi to be had,
And there's talk of starting a petition!”
And added a lost soul named Hershel,
(Though some deemed this too controversial):
“Plus we demand a refund
For the Oprah reruns
And all the ’Hair Club for Men’ infomercials.”
Said the landlord, “Guys, I hear all your pleas.
You think brimstone and pitchforks are free?
Things are tough all around,
‘Specially here underground.
And you do get to stay here rent-free.”
Categories:
housing, humor,
Form: Limerick
The All American Chump decreed
Americans are a different breed
Education we just don't need
The poor must work to earn their feed
Housing simply fosters greed
Healthcare cripples slow my lead
My budget clearly plans for war
Let losers ponder, "either ….or"
Everyone loves blood and gore
Americans just love it more
And I, as leader of the corps,
Shall shed more blood than mighty Thor
We lead the world in making tanks
But funding conflict breaks the banks
I, alone, can turn the cranks
To make a trembling world give thanks
Or fear the worst: "Here come the Yanks"
Mothers, historians, fill in the blanks.
Categories:
housing, america, hyperbole, leadership, political,
Form: Rhyme
Phones like Governments-
Providing housing!
Categories:
housing, adventure, creation, house, humorous,
Form: Light Verse
What too do about housing foreclosure?
maybe...just rent a bulldozer,
tear off the roof,knockdown some walls
at least have some personal closure...
*
Categories:
housing, funny
Form: Free verse
Public Housing
The rattle
in the walls
would stop,
I’m told,
if the litter
in the halls
were edible.
Night after night,
tin after tin
the rats squeeze in
to feast on
their reflections.
Donal Mahoney
Categories:
housing, on work and working
Form: Free verse
I pay the bank for this
Very bank used for standing
And staring with nothing left
To do but rob Peter, forget Paul
I didn’t like him very much anyway
Dollar dropped is a dollar lost to me
Investing naively in the will of free lies
To prepare for a future without living the life
Categories:
housing, angst, family, life, on
Form: Free verse
I was watching a humble man
Roll down hid window.
He pulls back his seat in recline.
A sigh escapes just past his teeth
In an attempt to turn my head.
I reluctantly look his way
As he slowly drops his
Ebony flip flops free from
The fast paced car with it's
Weathered glass windows.
We shared a sharp studying stare
As a fat dimpled spider crawls
Aimlessly across the dashboard.
We mindlessly breathe in the 5:am air
As we continue on down the road with no stoplights,
Leaving his tired soles behind,
Waiting for a California sun deterioration.
Categories:
housing, imagination, introspection, life, time,
Form: Free verse