Overlook the
sneer
passing remark
scornful glare
Smells so foul to
drench the neighborhoods in
capes of pity and shame

Held threadbare only by the
dreams of its people
Dug by
calloused hands
Cracked and tangled and
placed upon the Mississippi delta with
Streams that carved canyons and
Eroded the mountains of your spine and
Stained the concrete jungle a deep, deep
Blue

A Blue that
echoes in my soul and
Keeps
One
Steady
Beat.
That seeps through brick walls like
needlework that traces
Your veins and
marks our streets
Chips away at plaster that leaves
You bare and reveals the
skeleton of a man
with broken bones
But who refuses to fall

It coaxes a smile and swells
a pride
that unfurls and
sweeps and curls around
my ears and
Beats through my chest and
intertwines our hands
into one

I didn’t marry a man
I married a city
And I said, “I do.”