Ghetto Children in the Streets

The wintry Washington DC slums...

The ghetto smells of cannabis
Animal eyes staring at me below
     thick hoods and flat bills
A school bell rings somewhere in
     the grey distance
A shrill sound in the frost
Clear and loud and sharp
As if this entire neighborhood was a school yard
     and classes are over for all of us
The streets fill with gay voices
Swallowing the raw January air into their chests
Spitting it back out in cackles and songs
Like the Potomac gulls on
     the rooftops overhead.

1.19.2012