Detroit

There were fins and shiny chrome

Music blared from radios

Folks were polite and spoke with thought

Men would tip their hats

To ladies as they passed

Every merchant and resident

Knew the cop on the beat

And the cop knew them

Kids would ride bikes

Play baseball and basketball

With dreams of fame

The wars were over

And there was work for everyone

That clock was punched

And families were in style

Fathers and mothers lived as one

And children paid them mind

Engineers and doctors would emerge

From those classes taught

Homes neatly kept

Hedges trimmed and lawns mowed

What has happened here

To this city of steel and glass

Ignored and abandoned

To become a blight to humanity

Where once there was

Pride in ones work

Now is derelict and defunct

Where mothers used to sit on stoops

With children at hand

Are now murdered for imagined slights

The streets now are war zones

Gunned down for those drugs

That fill those pipes

No more care for those around

It is ignorance that now abounds

No more respect unless at the end of a gun

I cry for you, that once shining city

Of steel and glass


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