When We Were

A Ballad of the hopelessly lower middle class

When We Were

Living on the bad side of a good city.
Too broke to live the lie,
too rich to have soul.

They paint the happy picture so fiercely.
Safest city in America,
But we always lock our doors.

Past the manicured palms,
the facade of art and culture,
the kind of plasitic surgery landscape,
Only Califoria can carry.
There on the fringes,
in the slums of Beverly Hills,
Bars on the windows,
Hand written "Going out of Business" signs,
Glare at the gilded plazas
mocking their valet parking mentality.

We build these things, all of us
crying, scraping, prying,
trying to forget,
What its like to be poor.

I can't forget.
Too hungry to sink to their level
Too fat to rise up.

It was the way we were.
The shabby almost-good-enough corners
Will never leave my spirit.
That is the way we are
And those empty promise dreams
Will never leave our eyes.

Reviews

[Valentine]

Not only in California but all over the US and I pity the youngsters coming up as what will they do when a college education still leaves them washing windows or begging in the streets..Out two major factories in this small town in Arkansas left and people are really moving out..I am from Michigan and lived outside of Detroit and it is the highest mortgage loss sity..I do not like one person running for president and I sometimes think if China and N. Korea have more than a million man army..bring back the draft and get our mnation in supurb fighting comdition..broing the nation guard home they are suppose to be protecting us on our city streets not over there costing billions of dollars that we are in debt to China for..China wanted to export 10,000 women a year here and our governmn=ent said no..Thank God for that at least..God bless..valentine