Driving Through Detroit

Driving through Detroit
retroactive race riot
animosity still reverberates

sometimes subtle levels
others blatantly bold faced
insidious incidences occur
setting destructive domino
forces ignorance falling upon fear

corruptible forces
called claim to the stakes
dealing discriminate hands
well before coleman young
cashed in at the table

catalyst for mass suburban exodus
spurred by cadillac shepherds
blind preaching highway progress

segregationist slumlords
set roots for city rot urban decay

residents denied daily basic
survival dependent city services

neighborhoods foreclosed
copper piping stripped bare
district school budget
picked clean
in maintenance of
board-member parachutes
keeping up
cash lined city council pockets

unreliable emergency response time
criminals entrusted to monitor city crime

witness firsthand how the priveleged elect
pillage the yeast of the poor
sundering the daily bread of the people

derelict shells of firebombed
foreclosed family units
once flourishing urban conclaves
now paved in order to make way
for the royal automotive carpet

despoliation's acrid growth
desolation lot after lot
homes abandoned in droves
widows weeds woven amongst
vacant refuse dumped at random

roots upended
poverty weeding people
from the city

golds loveless bi product
here they obscure your face
with sterile paperwork coverups
impersonal short sight handouts

legislation passed
sweep public streets
thoroughly sanitize
guilty hands with crisp
scent of pine sol
soaked dollar bills

society's back alley castaways
backed into perpetual corners
dusty disposition of apparitional driftwood
residential refugees deprived of basic humanity

urban renewal aims
to phase out the down and out
sugar coat the statistics

kicked from the sidewalks
banished from the streets
life amounts to a simple bite to eat
warm shelter protection from cold safe sleep

downtown commercial district thrives
under pretty pink and green
neon casino cash flow

Grecian fountains
mega million dollar
sport amphitheaters
lions and tiger
icon offerings

prime real estate flats
resting along riverfront

night owl jazz
accompanying
all night bar tabs
anything to attract
the white whale cash
dropped by the
working class
weekend tourist

poem by Gregory Allen Uhan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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