Inside parked cars they drink top shelf liquor.

Their spent bottles litter parkways and curbs.

Big Pharma gets rich; the poor get sicker.

Recreational use of healing herbs

Wafts through the air along safe passage routes.

Vice peddlers bark of, “loose squares, rocks, and blows!”

Politicians smile with pearly whites out

Crocodile grins for “dog and pony” shows.

Losing battles of which we’re unaware.

So embattled we have PTSD.

Rationalized disparities ain’t fair.

Slaves working “off plantations” still ain’t free.

Addictions and mass incarceration

Only symptoms of the situation.