Last Night at the Slowdown!

I had a fabulous time at the Slowdown last night! 
It was my first time on that stage (we had the smaller one, I am told) and although it was slightly less intimate than Pizza Shoppe Collective, lots of regulars came out to watch and it was really awesome to see them in the crowd.


I performed mostly original pieces, although nothing new since the last show.
I have been working on my art (multi-media paintings) for the Dreaming Show this next weekend, so my creative time has been invested into that recently. 
I have about four new poems that just need some final edits to get finished and I'm hoping to have some new pieces to read at Dreaming on Saturday night.


So...three things:
HERE is info on Dreaming this weekend if you are interested.
And HERE is the link for the video from last night.  (I am the last performer on April Assault, Part 1, but be sure to check out Part 2 as well!)
and now...
here is a piece Ephemily has been asking me to post:


In Fear for My Life   

I used to live in a thick brick apartment
right next door to a half-way house half-way down the block.
The broken pavement
leaking pipes and
cracking walls
fell down into
our hair our showers our beds.

cockroaches ruled the kitchens
and feral cats stalked back alleys with the ferocity of cruel children.
              
alcoholics paced the streets drinking from paper bags
and neighbors sat on stoops
waiting to be institutionalized.

early one morning the police showed up
and put clear
plastic
cups
over the bits of shot-out human lung
lying bloody on the front steps.
I lived there through four years of rent-hikes rats and roaches,
two drive-by shootings, and three break-ins.

now I live in a beige-sided house in a beige-sided neighborhood.
everyone smiles and waves from their minivans and trucks.
roses and peonies litter the sidewalks and perfectly trimmed lawns obey every rule.

no one is shot dead in the street
I’ve never washed the face of a lost child
no one knocks on my door trying to sell me magazines or Jesus
no one threatens their wives in the front yard EVEN THOUGH the weather is warm

no one is selling drugs from the back seat of their rusted Pontiac Sunbird
and if I leave out bags of empty soda cans for the homeless
NO ONE picks them up before garbage day.

children laugh in the park,
there are no fights to break up
and families GARDEN together
on the public grass
along the boulevard.

I stand in the center of the traffic-free street
staring at all of this.
too terrified to move.
...