Particular Words in a Specific Order

scrapes clean 
water-welts and 
dirty faces, makes 
sidewalks blurry 
but smooth, the 
way new folk ask 
for it to be, they’ve 
been giving bonds 
to the city since they 
couldn’t put people 
in them anymore 
 
rough sponge 
scrapes clean 
industry-embered 
eyes of coal 
until they’re 
so sparklingly 
brilliant, you’d 
think they were 
the eyes of the 
sun, grinning 
down with white 
teeth and solar 
power and crane 
your neck if 
you wanna stare 
into the warm rays 
of rising equity  
 
rough sponge 
scrapes clean 
statistical data 
until it reads 
clean cotton, 
takes all that 
dirt and makes 
it salt-of-the-earth, 
erodes away 
average until 
average means 
“not asthmatic” 
and unaverage 
means broke
voiceless or 
a ghost 
 
rough sponge 
scrapes clean 
all that inky 
graffiti, all 
that inky air, 
took care of 
all that inky 
low-income  
housing 
because there 
isn’t any more 
laziness 
to scrub away, 
the smog
took care of 
that, just 
faces and scars 
left in the  
sidewalks 
they tore up 
with their 
fingernails on 
the way out

2019