29-F Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

Those days lived will not be clichéd!
Or comic stripped mixed,
For laughter, sport or revisited!
Not by me...
Or my sister Mim,
Again!

I lived those days in 29-F...
In an apartment!
Bereft and left with tears,
That did not end a steady flow!
Dysfunctional I knew too well back then.
In a three room brick flat
Stacked upon cinder blocks made!
Shaded by other buildings bricked...
As if in an experiment!
As if in a reality...
Where roaches and rats,
Cats and dogs shared a life
Assigned to failure!
And we lived on mustard sandwiches,
Many a day!
In Bellevue Square.
As I lay to feel the radiators steam with heat...
To keep us warm,
And our stomachs teased!
I see these things,
That will never leave!

I had no bed bug bitten buttocks left to turn...
But dreams,
I had a plenty!