Vista

there's this secret

sidewalk

connecting newgate with norbourne

smaller than other sidewalks

a shortcut

to the elementary school

that looks like it was

built in the late 60s or early 70s

reflecting

civil unrest

no windows

concrete and blank brick

a sort of

makeshift mote around it

you take the secret sidewalk

to get there

and I take it

daily

just to see the vista

between neighborhoods

backyards

for days

rotting sheds and cockeyed

fences

aluminum siding

and aluminum siding

places where

people broke their arms

an old motorboat

stubborn, goat-like

remembering

when somebody lost his shit

and

drowned

in the middle of

the secret sidewalk

everything

is beautiful

you just

have to stop

sunlight shiny

as a silverware drawer

grass sparkling

meanly

weeds

tucked into one another

total quiet

this place

here where no one

knows you

and then you

don't know yourself