20150713 (neighborhood)

 

Rail-thin Randy’s building a Target

At his nest in the trees 

Gathering treasures of the overflow

From garbage cans

On the days before collection

Yesterday as I passed with my dog

He offered me a blue and white plastic

Mr Freeze which he asserted was Good as ever

I don’t know what it does

But it’s brand new Do you want it 

No I demurred

Today his cache has grown to include

A green and white Bissell steam cleaner

In fairly good shape cord still attached

Most people cut the cord to signal

The appliance’s kaput 

He tests these somewhere

And it probably runs

Might squeal on startup a bit but it runs

It rained again all last night where did you sleep

He never answers where he goes 

To stay out of the rain

His mattress soaked lay behind the tree

Folded over either discarded or drying out

Guess he pitched it just

As he does the beer cans I gather

When he’s not around 

For some perverse reason

He hurled eight beauties

Over the fence into the secured 

Salvation Army parking lot

Soon to be home to sixteen

Condo-panda-moniums (-monia ?)

Of shoddy construction

Cheapening the block which

Several neighbors and I 

Are resisting at the Board of Zoning Appeals

Except for Randy’s new Target

It’s a great spot for eight well-built and pricey

Townhouses like those on Clinton 

Echoing old New York brownstones

All that’s there now is cracking asphalt

Junk trees twelve water-soaked railroad ties

An empty recycling bin captured 

When the first steps of planning began 

And those eight aluminum lovelies

Randy left me strewn about

If you’d paid real money for your abode

Across the street on the block

You wouldn’t want trash ticky-tacky

Built right next door 

Whatever they build these guys will make money

Do do something nice for the neighborhood

You’re gonna get rich

But those cans are mine

c. J.S.Manista, 2015