The Cops Are Always Here, poetry by Gabriel Bates at Spillwords.com
Max Fleischmann

The Cops are Always Here

the cops are always here

written by: Gabriel Bates

 

they come
to the
apartment complex
almost weekly.

sometimes
they’re here
for that guy
who beats
on his girlfriend,
or because
someone’s driving
drunk
and smashing
into parked cars.

sometimes
there’s a fight
in the parking lot
that needs to be
broken up,
or some drug addicts
are trying
to burglarize
a tenant.

there’s a whole
number of reasons
for the police
to be called.

this place
kind of has
a reputation
for that.

so what
do you do?

you go to work
every day,
pay your rent,
follow the rules.

and what do you get
for it?

you get stuck
living next to
a bunch
of degenerates,
you get to deal
with lowlifes
and criminals
on a daily basis,
you get thrown in
with them,
falsely labeled
as one of them,
and it’s all
just because
you can’t afford
to live
anywhere else.

see,
not even
an honest man
can escape
from a hellhole
like this.

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