CONDEMNED (2025)
By Joshua Pagano
It’s my own fault —
that’s what they say about my disrepair.
Soggy and dilapidated.
Uncut foliage tangles into the path leading to my door.
The steps are cracked like a gaping wound.
Unwanted and depreciated.
Stepping through the threshold,
looking inside, you may feel a chill.
Do not gaze too long.
Please do not gaze too long.
My tattered roof lets the rain in —
not every hole gets a patch.
Uninsured and moldy with disease.
My empty cupboards hunger to be filled.
Stepping deeper inside, you may sense an awful smell
— like decay.
Holes in my walls reveal beams,
skeletal and splintering.
Termites in my joints.
Sludge in my leaden pipes.
Foreclosed and forsaken.
Untouchable — unless underfoot.
I am fair game.
Throw an egg. Throw a bottle.
Spray me with paint and piss.
You can tell I deserve it just by looking at me.
Marked and derelict,
I am an easy target
because there’s no one left who cares about me.
So, they keep returning to vandalize my body
with nightsticks and pepper spray.
They are only ever held accountable by people who care.
They put chains across my doors and around my wrists,
and they lock me up behind bars
with many others like me:
unfit for human cohabitation.
When seen through a glass, darkly,
all our windows are broken.