poems

'79
Pontiacs perched on cinder blocks
Weeds stubborn urban on the edges
Ghosts of tenements loom in sorrow
Glass shards embedded in the dirt
of the yards where the world streamed through
Smack dead center yet pushed to the fringes
One country to the next, Que Paso?
'08
Doormen flag taxis, grab shopping, pet dogs
Westside replica brought complete
Ethnic dinners presented safely
Beers of the world, Banks of the world
Hot real estate cold cultural state
Place made uneasy by the ones that once scorned us

Spanish heard only on Avenue DMALL FOR THE RICH

 
Manhattan now, is a mall for the rich
non-inclusive, vapid
as culturally vaKunt as the models it houses.
Harlem's gone, Lower East Side too
Where bums lay derelict
condos replace tenements
that housed your family
Mick Black Kraut Wop Jew Rican
Marx Brothers, Cohan, Cohen, Chan
5 Points, Chinatown, Bowery, Loisaida
Only The Heights remain
and brother its days are numbered
The Chelsea Hotel is being gentrified
flop for Burroughs Ginsberg Kerouac Warhol
and my brother Brian
yet another boutique boite for yuppies and twats
oh they'll think its cool on thousand buck sheets, but none of them will create a damn thing, but Jeez it's sure handy if you're hanging in the meatpacking district
Where do the tv whoors hang their meat now?
Disney's got Times Square, Trumps got the West Side, the Church and Columbia have the best
and NYU will take the
rest
 birthplace, of my grandparents & parents & our son, place where Brian died
 place where 2 young hearts first met
New York, NY was a helluva town