Urban Redemption

I remember the summer of twelve years old when / My mother took me to a Navy base exchange / To buy a chocolate malt, and as I sat at our table / I sensed a circle of white enclose the bloom, / A sensation strangely different from rolling down / The hill with my childhood sweetheart.

The rain is coming down / in the city at the center / cars vans caravans of vans & cars / bicycles motorcycles ambulances firetrucks / crows eating debris from porches gutters alleys / earthworms in backyard gardens / eat kitchen waste spilled / from early morning garbage trucks / starlings on car roofs hoods windows / on the heads of walkers / on city blocks / up & down / leaves fall