A free-verse poem about two different worlds on opposite sides of a town. |
The old man and his dog are out walking at two o’clock at night. The man is retired, hence is no slave to the clock; neither is the dog, whose bladder dictated this walk. Their neighborhood is upper middle-class, with manicured lawns and well-maintained homes. The street is totally deserted. All houses are quiet and dark, their occupants safely asleep. The only sounds are distant car noises from the freeway and the occasional dog barking as they walk past their house. The street is well-lighted, safe, and secure even for an old man walking this late at night. In the quiet comes the muffled sounds of four, no five, gunshots from the lower-class neighborhood blocks away on the other side of town. The man stops and listens. Soon police sirens can be heard racing to the scene of the gunshots. The man wonders if the details of these shots will make tomorrow’s news. Probably not, as gunfire is a common occurrence over there in the poor part of town. Probably just a drug deal gone bad or maybe another drive-by shooting, and these are never reported unless someone was hit or killed by the bullets. Just another routine night for that neighborhood, where people are out on the streets doing business this late at night. The old man wonders what it must be like to live in a neighborhood where gunshots in the night are a commonplace event, where sleep is interrupted by sounds of violence on the street outside your front door, where a stray bullet may come whizzing through your bedroom as you sleep. Indeed, what must it be like to live there? A young boy in the poor neighborhood lies in his bed, awakened by the gunshots on the street outside his house. Afraid to go back to sleep, he wonders whether any of his friends were shot or killed this night. He hides under the covers, wondering what it would be like to live on the other side of town in the upper middle-class neighborhood where the rich people live in safety. Indeed, what must it be like to live there? Please check out my ten books: http://www.amazon.com/Jr.-Harry-E.-Gilleland/e/B004SVLY02/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0 |