City of the Big Shoulders ~ Friday, February 20, 2026

As Around a Blind Corner of the Eye

Around each blind corner, opportunity waits, is it love, hand in glove

stick a knife in your back, Chicago, no pity, the city has no love

Ask around town, you find too many solutions, too many opinions

rest assured, no one cares, they will turn a blind eye to poverty and greed

obey unspoken rules while on public transit, move on if you smell shit

understand how it works, nothing is ever clear, not ever explicit

never to recognize the horror of sorrow, why must the city bleed

drown in all the hatred, decades upon decades of neglect by minions

architects of status, power, corruption, lies, delusion comes to die

Belligerent systems, systemic racism, nepotistic cronies

listen, if you visit or stay for quite a while, Chicago does not care

if you die, to bury or cremate your cold corpse, you have to pay the fare

nothing but suffering, fun and joy, the spectrum, with pendulum ponies

decide if the future is real or just the past, on the wall, a crushed fly

Crushed by a flyswatter, Chicago does not care, big shoulders, what a joke

old dead poets once spoke kindly to white people, their audience, their kind

realize, to come here, how pretty, the city, tall buildings never fall

not unless an earthquake, like in San Francisco, flattens the city, broke

empty pockets, no cash, no spare change for beggars, bitter cold, break the mold

rest not on your laurels, there is work to be done, much work, corners are blind

only, gouge out my eyes, tired, never to know, to work, I hear the call

forget, two hands, two feet, arms and legs, head and brain, torso and a long neck

transform all that I see, imagine the unknown, if I could be so bold

helpless to offer aid, too poor, too broke, my heart, not in it anymore

ego is a balloon, as overinflated as a small pufferfish

Emptiness, I confess, I gave up church for Lent, post-colonial bore

yesterday, I woke up, I was born in Bombay, never return, I wish

every city, a myth, a narrative structure, just another car wreck

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What Is It Worth, a Dog's Life: A Triptych ~ Friday, November 7, 2025

Crushing Defeat ~ Friday, May 23, 2025

Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge ~ Friday, May 30, 2025