Tenement Years
Reared in ruins,
& East London brick dust,
lard spread on bread.
My figure daubed
by days of oil and dirt,
a boy by railroad tracks -
wrong side.
Trains clattered past
pumping smutty fumes.
Once, a pretty girl
visited our tenement,
posh clothes,
(I mean, not rough flannel),
clean hands, neatly dressed.
We boys gawped, then
then derided.
we had no way to acknowledge
one so distant from our reality.
I
...
Continue reading...
Categories:
tenement, poetry,
Form: Free verse
Tenement Tombs
. for public domain
Every crack in the ceiling,
dries up every river of dreams.
When idle eyes can't view their skies,
wadi minds flood over with schemes.
And every hole in the floors
becomes a bottomless well,
where loveless hearts go wishless,
dry up in a dusty old hell.
The mission bells may toll and toll,
but our dungeons, they fill and fill.
Sweet flowers
...
Continue reading...
Categories:
tenement, poverty,
Form: Free verse
Reflections On a View From a New York Tenement Window, Seen On Social Media
New York Stanza
The night is dark and wet, street lights
Have no purchase on the empty street beneath;
Only the soft glow from the tenement windows
Gives form and perspective to my view.
From a half open window across the street,
A soprano voice pierces the misty gloom:
Callas and Casta Diva, the imploring
Words quickly absorbed in the
...
Continue reading...
Categories:
tenement, imagery,
Form: Free verse
My Tenement
My Tenement is short and soft
Its rooms are bright but small
Windows here are tinted blue
There's music in the hall
A roof of light loose shingles
Seldom stays in place
Uneven wall are vexed by time
No siding can replace
But is warm and safe here
Where laughter shakes the walls
Loosening the mortar
So bit by bit it falls
I have this space and
...
Continue reading...
Categories:
tenement, analogy, body, identity, metaphor,
Form: Lyric
Tribute To the Tenement Documentary
Tribute to “The Tenement” Documentary
All I know is fix’ n
Sweep’n and mopp’n
Wash’n
And dust’n
I reckon, I’m the only one doing work around here
I must raise ‘m up right
Even in this South side of Chicago slum
Late afternoon children play house
Others wheel tires down the sidewalk
Daddy’s ears are good for trouble
Mama ain’t have’n’ it
Say
...
Continue reading...
Categories:
tenement, america, black african american,
Form: Narrative
Scattered Remnants of the Tenement
In the hollows of my being
mental photos move about
doors attempt to shut out
what was already in - severity
plaster walls sharing testimony
with squeaky floors
warmth mingled with kerosence petals
ancient melodies oozing hope
ties of embryonic attendance
anchors of strength obtained
...
Continue reading...
Categories:
tenement, childhood
Form: Free verse
Tenement Lot
A spot
On the urban blight
Where once stood
A faded five
Story hovel
For the poorest of
the poor
Fallen in
final decay
Victim of time
Neglect, hopeless
poverty
Political impotence
No flowers,
No ripe tomatoes
Not even marajuana
Just the weeds
Of poverty
Smashed, broken
glass of dreams
Dead in their infancy
When reality set in
No cucumbers, no lilies,
A few times
An unplanted corpse
Of this weeks murder
An unholy offering
To the Devil,
Janitor, custodian,
And owner of
this concentrated
bastion
...
Continue reading...
Categories:
tenement, angst, death, depression, history,
Form: Free verse