Who Would Want to Live There?

Giving up one smell for another.

There's a part of town
Everyone holds their breath
As they drive through there
It smells like a sewer there
Who would want to live there?

That is where you will find me
In a duplex with crooked doors
Broken steps and cracked floors
This is where I dwell these days,
Never once asking myself,
Who would want to live there?


I guess I have a choice.
I could be living at home
With my mother and all the others
Who come and go at her house
Siblings, nieces, nephews, cousins,
Even a stray neighbor evicted
Has found his way to her couch.
Who would want to live there?

Telling myself I am better off
Here, away from the 'rez
Away from the stink that resembles
Nothing like what I smell here
Away from a loss of freedom
I can no longer stomach or abide.
Here through the sewer smell,
The broken street lights,
Sounds of sirens and fights,
Through the long evil nights
I look back on the 'rez life, asking myself
Who would want to live there?

Reviews

[Debbie_Philly]

Oh I feel this piece very much... I know about Who would want to live there... because I live there... great piece !!

[OBWhiteHawk]

Thank you, yeah I thought maybe you were my neighbor, lol. ;)

[Debbie_Philly]

LOL I live in Philadelphia in a really rough neighbor hood and my house is in need o repair and we live around the corner from an oil refinery... so.. it might be like your way.. ;)

[OBWhiteHawk]

Mine is in Gallop, New Mexico but yeah same neighborhood, lol.

[Emily B]

there is a hill close, the college has it open for hiking, and once on a sunny day, i sat on a rock and closed my eyes and heard the drums of ancient americans, the drums meant danger, someone above me spoke and the spell was broken

on another trip, i passed a tree and went suddenly hurtling down the cliff and landed exactly where i had stood . . . sometimes i think i want to live there

[OBWhiteHawk]

On a hill that is visited by ancestors, guarded by spirit? Yes I can see why you would want to live there. :)