7th & Turner by Andrew Vuono

A Wise man once told me  

“I’m not a crackhead I’m a crack smoker”  Then Packed his fiddle with glaciers Blasting a melting trill that sounded  Like the fall of Rome  

As underserved  

School children  

With semi-retired crossing guards  Walked Across the brazen November  Crosswalks, threading  

Inbetween the hustlers 

 Stanced and leaning  

On cornerstore curbs  

Down the street from the  

Pedestrian only juice bar and  

multi million dollar hockey rink  As the dispossessed 

 Perch hopelessly across a ledge  Outside Nikita’s bar  

And these blight fueled merchants  Pinch packets, and vials  

From stashed crotches  

Thumbing bills in their pockets  Poaching purpled eyed 

 White boys who lurch by  

Hands clutched inside hoodies  Holding the answers  

To the questions  

What do you want 

 How much you need  

Already knowing  

There is no difference 

 Between want  

And need 

To those who give it all away  On 7th and Turner 

Andrew is a forklift certified art school drop out punk rock poet from Bethlehem, PA. Founder and Organizer of 610poetry, he believes that poetry belongs to everyone, especially the marginalized, disenfranchised and working class. He describes his work as “Post-industrial gothic”, touching on subjects such as drug addiction, homelessness, gentrification and hopelessness. When he’s not reading poetry or riding his forklift, he plays bass in a psychedelic gore-punk band called Gopher Guts and rollerblades