Magnolia Ave.

The red lights on East Magnolia test
my patience more than those people
who pay in pennies--
the people who have made a home here 

in the ghetto. The streets
trafficked only by theives, dealers,
and stray kittens

not patrol cars
neighboorhood watch signs
or working street lamps.

On every block there is someone
in borrowed clothes
and stolen shoes two sizes
too big, walking

either to a bus stop
or just head-on
with worn faces and dirty looks,
forgetting to step
over the cracks in the sidewalk

because they have never known
their mothers.

The red lights here are not meant
for traffic flow, but to take a second
and stop
and look around at what has become

of people's lives
a city's history
the streets some call home.