earth note 352

downtown denver

there is no imaginary

neal cassady & his dad
on these streets anymore

their story was one of a kind

spelled out at life's
first third marker
& even throwing in
another fifth for good measure
won't bring you anything new
today

the marijuana generation

has made it legal now
for folks like neal & his dad
to jam themselves
into a dusty church attic
to get a few winks of sleep
before heading out
into the streets again
or on over to the still under funded
elementary school
or down to the old union pacific
tracks & box cars heading west

not saying it's better or worse

than it was then
just different
all the promises were bullshit
it's just taken so many decades
for that simple acknowledgment

clothing for the homeless

is now all about corporate symbols
issued with an accompanying
pat on the back
& a mention on npr

--- e b bortz