Alleyways

Or maybe the body doesn’t always
Want to live. Maybe the body’s ready
To quit. It’s like a town now, a downtown

Where so many shops are shut or shoddy
And barely continuing to function
That you have to wonder which way it’s going—

Decline, of course, but quickly or slowly?

The middle isn’t so much empty as

Falling in on itself, gutted structures,
Crumpled plumbing, and the only hot spots
Are the alley corners where the dealers

Manage to attract business thanks to pain.
The store owners have given up on them.
Police give chase, but the pain lures them back.