the neighbor
|
they took him away
today I heard college
spanish spoken voicefully
upstairs then weeping
weakly jostling noises
against my plasterboard
wall from outside on
the linoleum staircase
they took him away
today I heard immigration
officials explaining his
alien rights deliberately
non-rights unlawfully
posing as the woman
citizen who'd signed
the lease then died
of an overdose years
before he'd been wearing
her sequined dresses four
inch high heels cosmetics
tricking everyone till now
no more of his twenty-hour
a day nonsensical ukulele
strums and squalls keeping
me from reading writing
thinking sleeping et al
no more of his boy lover
junky pesterings rapping
my door at three in the morning
no more of his intrusive
questions that you mama
you papa take you girl
to visit today? or that
you husband the one this
morning and yesterday?
no more endearing stoop
step greetings of hi my
neighbor hi my neighbor
when I'd forget all his
annoyances and smile hello
on my way inside home
they took him away
today I heard for stabbing
the guy across the hall
over a mutual lover I heard
them take him away today
|
Poem by Janet Cannon
|
|
