Children
Eyes hollowed out dark spots
Absent of hope just hunger
And
The anger
Smoldering
Right there
Beneath where
The soul used to be
Scraped raw
Scarped raw and broken
Like the bottom
Of the dirty pipe scraped for one more hit of luck

Mercy comes after the
Learning of swinging lashing belts
Fists full of cracker pimp rings
And with swift kicks
From the steel toed square toed boots

Only during the day time
Police and fire department ambulances
Would arrive
No night time emergency services
Not when the Spinners are out
Tweaker Zombie parade of shuffling desperation
Houses
Ripped apart
Walls tore out
To pull out
The copper wire
Hinges
Busted off doors
That were stolen
To begin with

Nothing sacred
Packing bindles
From pages torn
From un-read bibles

The Tin-Man is all up again
Gonna be another long week again might even carry over into the weekend
Low crawling through the attic setting traps
On the walls scrawling bible verses like invocations and curses

And from under the door to the back shed
You can see the glow like a sun rise
Creeping out from the cracks
As the torch heats up the glass for one more round
Gotta be awake to make the shake and bake
Gotta make the medicine
Or the man will get mad again
Gotta pay the bills or the bills pay you
Never mind the shake in the hand
That will pass

And from the back door
You can see the glow
From the burning back shed

Maybe in the daylight
Fire department or police might show

But tonight
Tonight the
Dead walk and dance and blow clouds

©workingclassproduction.com2014