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.