Poem

sleet and concrete
huddled figures in filthy misbegotten doorways
grey skin leftover from factory stints
exported to the preternaturally clean
who live on rice and bamboo
in the stereotyped alcoholic fantasies of the
unemployed
and they used to make calculators
and toast milwaukee
wearing the same jackets to fend off gas station attendants
and stewardess
the gin and tonic and well run trappings
for an indigo and paisley tinted age
boring they may well have been
and coke bottled
still myopic and ravaged by profitable tooth reduction therapy
methadone clinics sticky tiled floors
catch on their bandages and
they unravel
revealing wisps of viscera
and floating pairs of mournful eyes
unintentionally inspiring guilt