#1 place to live in america

under the interstate
bridge near the
mall men
with burlap eyes
and corduroy
faces sleep.

colored bottles lined
in rows mark
their days or years,

as silent cars
with rolled-up
windows and locked
doors drive by

with lawyers
and nurses and
waiters and
poets pushing
straight ahead
to the hill
on the horizon.

–published on Ceteris Paribus