The Shame
Traveling on the Link Light Rail,
Heading south from the prosperous center of Seattle,
Complexion changes, Vietnamese, Filipino, Latino--
Cheap restaurants, graffiti, crummy housing,
People on the streets festooned with tattoos,
The usual storefronts: payday loans, pawn shops, blood
plasma operations:
Enough cash for dinner and a few beers
In exchange for a pint of your lifeblood.
And there, to the southwest,
Towering over these shabby digs--
Rainier, world's most beautiful mountain,
Most majestic, hovering over it all,
Yelling out, “Shame! For shame!”
O America! You of the false
promises.
[Bob Coughlin / July
22, 2014]
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