20150827 (foreclosures)

Made the mistake of trying 

To get on ML King to get home

From church last Sunday

Orange barrels blocked every

Access momentarily disoriented

I toured Cleveland’s east side

Neighborhoods near St. Clair

Superior like so much of the city

Once stately and proud

Large homes with period details

Now a mixed bag some

Lavished with care over the years

Still beautiful next to others boarded

Porch roofs caved in I had accompanied

Mailmen on their routes on many

Of these streets twenty or more years ago

When they had not suffered so much decay

The foreclosure crisis since two thousand eight

Seemed still strongly in place wrecking

Property families school districts

As powerfully as any huge concrete

Weight swung from a crane

If you had managed to avoid

Job decimation kept your house

Up with proper paint good roof

Gutters grass the rest but around you

Neighbors lost their jobs

Suffered illnesses took on those

Home equity loans pushed

By sleazy mortgage companies

Their equally prevaricating agents

With fine print boilerplate designed to

Steal equity with high fees

Then the house when they faltered

All the value you thought you were

Building the American Dream 

Own a house Dubya urged 

Now you couldn’t sell it if you had to

Sure it’s nice but look what it’s beside

Can’t all have been crack houses

To ruin a neighborhood this quickly

I’d be scared to let my kid play outside

The place next door is supposed to be empty 

But I see people sneaking in out 

All day all night homeless maybe 

Looking for a place to sleep

I hope they’re not using the bathrooms

The water’s been shut off for months

Hope the gas too not like that place

On the west side that blew like

A bomb when something or

Someone too close made a spark 

Knocked the houses near it off

Their foundations shattered windows

For blocks around 

Yeah who’s going to live here 

Me ‘cause I own it with its 

Good paint great features

The Katrina that wrecked this wasn’t

A hurricane not for me but you’d

Thought a powerful water wind swept

All the rest away

c. J.S.Manista, 2015