Pure Poetry: East Colfax by Taryn Browne

East Colfax

by Taryn Browne

Low riders riding on the hips of their mothers

Shoulders bustling out of straps

The borders of this town are squeezed

between tattooed arms and dancing poles

The streets are in bloom with neon lights

like cheap fake flowers bedded down

in crooked sidewalks

advertising weekly rates for rooms

with free adult movies

and written on walls the spray painted language of the streets

jagged letters written in a hurry to issue warnings

of where you are and where you should not be

if you are of another gang, another neighborhood.

Rocks roll in women’s hands as they stand on street corners

The smoke moves up and down the street sweetly

into lungs for mere pocket change

This is the street of the destitute and the prostitute

A strip of pavement that unravels through the night

under any moon in any season

where what you should not be looking for can be found

Liquor stores hang out on each corner

flickering beer lights in darkened windows

People of all nations walk this street

People of all nations live along its corridor

carving out their culture in a collage of living

The Bantu, the Ethiopian, the Middle Eastern,

the Mexican, the Dominican

And I too live off its strip

the longest street in America,

close to the beating heart of a city.