Cincinnati

1.  the sun shines
    thru bare windows
    the room's a baking oven
    there are no chairs yet
    to sit on, just hard
    wood floors and dust
    the walls are freshly
    white-washed but for
    cockroach footprints
    i'm not sure if it's
    home now but tomorrow
    i'll know better

2.  the streets outside
    are busy with gays
    and old gray women
    jobs aren't hard to
    come by if you
    don't mind working
    free.  there's friendly
    help from lonely strangers
    but not many parking spaces
    and on the hill they
    make you sweat and wonder

3.  nighttime in the
    city, bamboo on the
    windows the whitewashed
    walls are gathering tracks
    of the human kind   two
    chairs, two beds, two people
    and cold beers in the
    kitchen.  i'm not sure
    if it's home now but
    tomorrow i'll know better

label: 
August 1983