12:53 PM 8/17/03

the pimp is
walking up the street
fast,
middle of the road,
to the sidewalk,
staring up Baltimore
with a brown crumpled bag in one hand
and
a pink towel in the other ..

hawking the surroundings,
moving several miles per hour,
hot as a mug,
the day is in front of him
and someone looks to be either after him
or he is after them ..

this place has traffic like I have never seen ..

day in and
day out,
the carnival comes tripping by,
the cars,
walkers,
dreamers,
perverts,
drunks,
whores,
drug heads,
honest old men,
buggy driven old women,
and
the man with the pink towel

heading towards the gay black men
checking them out ..

the hustle of NYC
in front of my coffee mug ..

the shout of Sunday
in my ears
and

I finally,
coming to this end,
see zero activity ..

nothing ..

our neighborhood
calm before the
storm ..