Stray Dogs Lapping Poem by Eric Cockrell

stray dogs lapping
at the bloody tracks
the homeless leave in the snow.

burnt out Marlboro fingers
shaking with the cold...
small children's big eyes screaming
with silent stinking fear!

and the halls and the walls
of the traders vibrate with smoke...
nothing gained, nothing lost,
in the land of nothing....

my grandmother's Bible lays by
the stove that was never empty...
my father sits and stares at the walls,
listening for the echo of....

my mother's voice....

and all the things we believed in
are lost,
forgotten....

stray dogs lapping
at the bloody tracks
the homeless leave in the snow...