The Asphalt
Fading grass around a barkless tree
Among the pale green blades,
cigarette butts, and scurrying rats,
the asphalt reigns supreme among
bent steel and rusted misery
That's all a kid in this neighborhood
is being brought up to see
Broken glass bottles and no family
Syringes, bongs, and fentanyl
Outside in a stolen tent
No one is making a dent
a 30° rated filthy sleeping bag
the nomadic dormitory
for the desperate and the dead
What you see is what you get
Hold it deep and feel the reset
It's not a twisted perspective
Or the usual excuse of it is what it is
Each and every one of them
Manipulated uniquely with ease
Up all night selling, smoking, and
Drinking someone else's dream
Dying to be part of the team
Desperately, from age thirten
Shooting for the stars
And ending up behind bars,
Life begins and ends
With no helping hands
With no directions and
No repentance, all they know
The life, is, the sentence
Prepared for them years ago
Even fortune cookies,
And magic tellers
could have easily predicted
They will be lost but at home
being terminally addicted
All around, the asphalt has
too many faceless names
Engraved with no stars
Just bullets and blood
Washed away in the sewers
By the most inclement flood