Soft Places

Strange places slept
 Woke eyes wet, a dream of death
 Bad dreams are only dreams
 What a time you chose to be born
 Cold world, run water till it steams
 Burns like woman scorned
 Grey is the day you realize she doesn't care anymore
 For sure
 Jaw set, sign the form
 Sky hard, wind raw
 Cats paw, outside the A rab store
 The ragged gathered in the beast's maw
 A hab washed ashore
 Black, two sugars!
 This is not my block
 This is not my hood
 This is not my stoop
 This is not my room
 This is not my mother's lap
 This is not my brother's beat
 This is not my father's scold
 I might have lost my teeth
 These walls are painted weird
 The neighbors barely speak
 Her other partner's queer
 Secrets in tangled sheets
 Dingy brassiere hang on the wall like a wreath
 She creeps, she creeps, she creeps
 The news says "Two dead, two fled."
 Iron hands, faces lead
 In grey areas broke the bread
 Shame burning, hid his head
 Night terrors
 Claw at legs from under beds
 Life's errors
 Carried you here like pall-bearers
 Cracked mirrors
 Fierce squalls, gripped the mask aghast
 Mother turns away appalled
 Cold wind harbinger
 Surrounded, suddenly unfamiliar
 Silently, they all point the finger
 "Thats the nigga!"
 Vacant lot, the wing spot
 The liquor mart, the dollar store
 Ready vodka, make a blast
 They huddle close with open sores
 Afflicted, condition contrition
 Color coded vile tops look like candy from distance
 Vinyl shop with glam rock window
 Mannequin akimbo dozing
 Frozen moments folded
 Tucked inside of 40 Belows
 Last rite for Franklin Ave soldiers
 No condolence
 That's not an omen that's an eviction notice
 Hold it
 Sold it
 Rash moment
 Those beans better've been magic homie
 "Gotta have hope jack!"
 Go 'head and quote it
 Smile broken when they broke in
 Blind how they stole him
 Rip unwoken
 Fog rolling off the ocean
 Wandering ronin lay down prepared to meet that final opponent
 Looping Saharan cellphone music
 Greets the retreating Romans
 Rope and limb, woods dark
 Trees groaning
 Then he rose and wept without knowing
 Cash on the spot
 Stuck it out
 Couple hundred thou
 Took that joint pension
 Bounced south
 Red clay tobacco field
 Left a three family shell in gentrified hell
 Tooth and nail
 Pissing in the wishing well
 Neighborhood borders keep shifting
 These names keep switching
 When the bodega starts to stock the red beer papi
 Wet the fear
 Red race tripping
 Pinch face pull 9 whistle
 Snatch kindles
 "Look alive killer!"