L'Enfant

Tough to find your center
in Seraing in the winter
as Vinegar Joe drones CNN
the sublet won't even let your hand in--
but all God's children get a handbasket
a task, a handcart, a pot to piss in
& maybe a glimpse of a river masking
the smell d'argent with the reek of its absence--
we're all neo-realists, all sleek & handsome,
except for the babies pawned or ransomed
for cellphones & a wagon pushed through the wind,
like a masterless cub sans sword to spend
each day in the open and each night in a hole,
the leafless damp canyons a kind of parole.