The sandstone edifice
of historical interest (theoretically)
obscured by chainlink (useless)
to guard against pigeonshit:
defaced and preserved.
Ghetto palms rip up the roof
of the awful Friends' prison
Hot bright August night
Buildings blinking at airplanes
Bone thin madmen
in fifteen pants
and parkas
glaring, sweating, muttering
tottering past the sewers stench
Pent up boys
yell lust down
at girls passing between
the juvie and the gourmet shop
A million and a half a day awake
to pretzels three for a dollar
in the ruins of schemes and monuments
a cluttered vault of dreams
of the Peacable Kingdom,
ice cream,
fast steel,
Liberty ships and
Liberty bells
Sunrise was an operation in my day
that sent whores to the Roundhouse
while Rizzo and Rocky raised bronze arms
and Ramona Africa hating back
(and who can blame her)
through a bullhorn
to a park
full in the summer
with blacks and whites who don't care
Nicetown and Fishtown and Mantua
Skinny Joe and girlie shows
Summer's stagelit tits
Murder in the newspapers,
and others that don't make it in
The man shot down by a cop on my block
while my daughter watched
I always took it slow
on the Pendergrass curve
I rode around and around
the collapsed and empty dome
of the Centennial
It was all gorgeous and falling apart
