One Mile

Shadows slide up the buildings
Moving with the sun.
Cigarette butt gangs linger by the curbside.
Black Brazilian union on the watchcase entrance.
Pieces of my youth.
Punker kids skate post office sidewalks.
Disheveled bike maids swarm the five and dime.
Everyone lives above a bar or a liquor store.
Traffic shuts down for the railroad bells.
Pieces of my youth.
The night littered with distant sporadic shouting.
Basketball granite echoes beatbox free style.
Skunkweed fumes haunt the high school parking lot.
Patrol car sirens silence church bell serenity.
Pieces of my youth.