street_scenes raze a barcode on the back of a bus. the face of a farsighted vulture who calls himself a man. an ambulance that isn't in any hurry to attend to whatever emergency its siren is screaming about. a red honda accord wobbled by potholes the city can't afford to fix after blowing their wad on christmas lights no one but the mayor gives a flying fuck about. the mess left behind by a construction crew that hasn't worked a day in the last week. a townhouse painted a shade of orange that defies description. two teenagers texting in an empty parking lot, their thick curls bullied into rough partitions by the wind. a little girl in a pink parka bouncing behind her black labradoodle, proving every sidewalk is a trampoline if you're brave enough to use it. 220326 ... raze father and child straddling a city bike, veering east, young shoulders braced by half the heredity that sculpted them into ball and socket joints strong enough to support embryonic arms reaching for everything they long to hold. two heads hugged by molded plastic designed to shatter on impact. both bodies bending the same lie into a shared promise: we won't fall. we won't fall. we won't. 220330 ... past the rain drizzled, pooling unevenly in the road and, especially, the crosswalks. a rhythmic thumping comes from the big construction project a block north, while from a block west comes the steady humming of generators keeping food cool ten days after the power was knocked out. to the south drivers speed down the residential street, hoping to shave seconds off their drive. this need for speed is stymied by the downed power lines still blocking the road just to the east. 220601 ... raze at tecumseh and drouillard, a motorcycle's fractured fuselage framed by yellow police tape. a grand marquis with lava on the license plate. a strip club repurposed as a squalid hotel. "bar closed," groans the sign out front. "rooms for rent." blessed is the single-word decal cut into white cursive, clinging to a car's back glass. an empty paper bag sleeps on the sidewalk. a black squirrel saunters into a cemetery — a dark wraith surrounded by stone ghosts. 220925 what's it to you? who go blather from