the dark streets of decay 10

the cat purrs on my lap

i click on internet news

the creationist gives his view

the evolutionist gives his

 

but each forgets

knowledge is not attainment

 

religion without love is just rules

science with arrogance is ignorance

 

and we multiply the divide

 

the cat offers no argument

as i gently move her from

my lap to the couch

 

put on my jacket

grab my flask and cigarette packet

and head out onto city streets

devoid of scientists and religious love

 

here you just don’t want to roam into gang territory

or have a conversation with a man

who spends his nights talking to himself

and don’t stand in one place for too long

 

god does not hang out under street lamps

and fishnet stockings and high heels

doesn’t mean it’s a girl

 

my cigarette smoke swirls

then disappears

and mind melds

with the l. a. smog

 

night dwellers are bottom feeders

and this is the bog

suburbanites fret over drain clogs

tonight i could be shot

 

a random act of violence

in l. a. pedestrians step over dead bodies

alcohol and cigarettes are the slowest form of suicide

and as another infernal rain sets in

i start singing “riders on the storm”

as loud as my voice will let me

 

another crackpot infesting the streets

every night the story changes

but the final act is always the same

 

shakespeare was brilliant

he said everything there is to say

except he knew nothing about

the dark streets of decay

 

there is no moral where we play

just an infestation of cockroaches

who scatter at dawn’s first light

 

there is no yahoo news

or shakespeare in the park

and no noah to build an ark

in response to this incessant rain

 

two by two would only bring four

those on the streets

and those who abhor

and believe that what they believe

is the final score

 

but one size does not fit all

if there is a hell it will be a costume ball

and we will be forced to wear the mask

that we craved

and with which we tried to enslave

 

salvation is not looking in a mirror

personal perception makes nothing clearer

 

and at midnight those who try to sway

are con men looking to get their fix

there are no debates among the concrete and bricks

just survival from sunset to sunrise

debaters use words to disguise

on the streets it’s only the wise

who run as fast as they can

 

***