Seventeenth Street Poem by Juan Olivarez

Couples stroll in and out of the restaurants,
As the neon lights start to glow.
The day laborers are getting dropped off,
At the corner of eighteenth and Beaumont.
Music starts to blare from the new clubs on the strip.
The cops at he substation call it a day, the replacements,
Slowly trudge into work.
The whores start to appear on the dimly lit corners,
To ply their trade.
Fat old women, with missing teeth.
Only a handful of young good looking girls.
The Greyhounds roll out on their different routes,
To different parts of the States.
The Border Patrol closely watching all that get on or off,
The Sceni-Cruisers.
The Taxi drivers trying to hawk fares, with their cigarettes dangling,
From their lips, and smelling of sweat and tobacco.
The taco vendors trying to push the last of their wares to the,
Departing passengers, so no left overs will go to waste,
If they haven't already.
Men going in to the bathrooms, and reappearing minutes later,
Dressed as women, start walking alongside the whores.
Somebody is in for a surprise.
A long line around the corner of Dallas, is testimony,
To the popularity of the new Robert Downey Jr. movie,
Now showing at the Palace.
Another night on Seventeenth street, life goes on.


(8/31/11-Alton Texas)