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THE PLAGUE WE CHOSE TO IGNORE (a Sonnet)
Centuries before Covid-19 hit
A pandemic infected this country.
And since it was a plague, we ignored it.
We whitewashed genocide and slavery.
We wore politically corrected masks
To shield others from verbal aerosol.
Treating the symptoms was a short-term task.
Red, blue and white pride came before this fall.
Historic disparities reared their heads.
Structural biases waged their impacts.
Statistics mattered, after all was said
By white men in power disputing facts.
Racism, the plague we chose to ignore,
Led coronavirus to Black folks’ door.
URBAN FORTRESSES II (more sonnets on gentrification)
THIS HIPSTER COFFEE HOUSE WAS ONCE A HOME.
The truth is that somebody used to live here.
This hipster coffee house was once a home.
The espresso bar sits where dad drank beer.
Black coffee’s now soy lattes with no foam.
That Starbucks used to be a laundromat,
And that real-estate office was a bar.
That Air B & Bs used to be three flats.
Boston’s Beef levelled for a lot for cars.
Artists’ lofts reuse long-closed factories,
And suburbanites claim urban zip codes.
While caged birds sing in penitentiaries,
Family homes are bought for taxes owed.
Gentrifiers re-imagine places
In their own image- but they’re not racist.
HOUSING CHOICE IS NOT A CHOICE
Middle class supplanted working class
Residents and their impoverished ilk.
Planned obsolescence of the “ghetto pass”
Is like a blunt object wrapped up in silk:
You see it coming, but it’s so pretty,
You’re mesmerized… until that fatal thump!
That’s the “circle of life” in the city:
Up-and-coming neighborhoods rise from slums.
Mixed-income neighborhoods… act as “buffers.”
The “golden rule” is often mis-stated.
The point is not “doing unto others”
As much as how one’s credit is rated.
For poor folk, “housing choice” is not a choice
Because power only hears money’s voice.
UNTITLED
UNTITLED (on the state of the union)
Ever-increasing ev’ryday bullshit
Momentarily overwhelms logic.
From the white house, from their bully pulpits
They spew verbal chum that would make dogs sick!
The free mind finds no solace in this truth.
They are just wise enough… not to partake.
The emperor wears only his false tooth.
Sociopaths don’t get, “for goodness’ sake.”
Empathy and civility are lost
When administrations become regimes.
The first family thinks they’re above the law.
Cast away former “allies” reveal schemes.
Turn state’s evidence, as they make plea deals.
Facts so outrageous they just don’t seem… real.
