Hope

Dahmer got fifteen
life sentences today
I'm visiting friends
in the hospital
too much fear
too little life for much
too long and all the traffic
of the windshields filled with needy
and greedy eyes someone placed
a rose on the sidewalk
for St. Monica see the shabby man in the park
drop a sleeping bag like it was
his dead soul

see the cadillac lady
see the skateboard boy
see the man hold the crinkled cardboard

sign will work for food
please the lady steps out of her sports club
in her pink sports clothes
handing her valet ticket to the valet
there's one man on each bus stop
bench one with a bridled retriever
for eyes one with a shabby t-shirt
that reads where exactly are we.