- Keith Banner
Why I Love Forest Park
first i guess
would be the
litter nestled in
raw green grass
and houses in various
states of grandeur
and disrepair
vinyl siding and concrete
about ready to
lose it
the weeds always busting through
like epiphanies
the kroger's!
man the kroger's
don't forget the kroger's
sure it is a grocery store
but also a state of mind
even before this
covid-19 bull-shit
it was a major melo-
drama it was
people sick and tired
of groceries sick and tired
of coupons
but going thru the shit
anyway
furious
sleepy faces letting you
know without words
that they have worked their asses
off for almost
nothing and 2
packs of newports please
apartments, duplexes, condos
that one chinese restaurant still
open even though everything
else in its stripmall world has
gone silent
everything even the parking-lot
trees dumbfounded
dialysis
is a lifestyle
here and
the population has been
18,500 for
almost 40 years
still there's don't get me wrong
still there is this
feeling
like you need it
even when you go to that tax office
with the ladies with
fake fingernails
behind the glass partition
looking at you like
you are interrupting their communal
dream of not
doing anything
but waiting to
deny you something
even that is
gold
even that seems to have
purpose, a reminder
that you are here
get used to it
