3rd and Main

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Kitty-corner from
La Costeña Bar with it’s
all black matte walls, red trim,
palm trees leaning towards
each other as in acknowledgement,
and across from the Ronald Reagan
“the great communicator” Memorial Building
people on the street shake and shiver.
Early morning chill licking their scaly skin?
They shake and shiver for a fix?
From the ghosts of past wars that harass
them, they scream and argue with to no ends?
The people of skid row, shake and shiver
gathered underneath the tree, slap hands
in the middle of a traffic meridian
smoke on butts, sip out of steamy cups.
What a sight
an image wavering
on the fringes of revitalization…just missed it
out of sight, always out of mind.
Right across the street from the Ronald Reagan Memorial
people are sprawled out, hungry
cold, tired, pale around the edges
an image struggling to be seen
by the early passers by scrambling
to get to…get away, shoo away
panhandler’s pleadings with a turn of the head
or turning up their car stereo.
A woman leans against a fence, sits
on her concrete throne
displaced “welfare queen”
tugs at a wrinkled not so hefty trash bag,
stretches the edges
till they turn gray
pulling for an extra inch of shelter.


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