Live Edgewise Poem by Patti Masterman

Live edgewise, never remember
People owed or displaced
Time goes in fits and starts
Life is a filthy, seeping river
Depositing its grime on your shores
You can't live clean here
Whites don't stay white
Living sours everything
Any white you see is a cheat.

Live sideways, and walk
As if death approached
From every avenue
The number on your head
Is the next one coming up
It never happens to others
It only happens to you
Now is as close to never
As you'll ever want to be.