The Barrio!

These gormless parents,
Letting their kids run around with no shoes on,
Someone please call Social Services,
Before they step on the shards from the broken bottle of Heineken!

One mom is upstairs,
Manically putting makeup on her face,
She needs to get her priorities in order,
Before she ends up with kid numero diez.

At the bottom of the stairwell,
A boy tinkers with his iPhone,
I guess with all the drugs he sells,
There’s plenty more expensive things he owns.

Every night the little girl next door sings,
She can hit every note on the register;
After each song, though, she can be heard weeping…
Because in her heart she believes she can’t go any further.

In the early morn,
Before the moon and sun platoon,
There’s talking—words spoken that I cannot discern,
And the sound of music blaring: BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

This place is far from photogenic,
The street is always strewn with debris,
It’s an eyesore that can make one sick,
And it reflects badly upon me.

But there’s a store nearby,
So I always eat,
And though the latest gadgets I can’t afford to buy,
I still fancy myself quite the geek!

Though I’m a geek, I’m, first, a guy,
And though some of these girls look summery,
I don’t want no children calling me “daddy”.

- Kevin B. Waring