12 April 2021 | NPM | “Behind the Streets in Bakersfield”

by Carla Joy Martin

 Driving around Haggin Oaks,
 Wide boulevards with clearly painted lanes
 Control smoothly flowing traffic
 Of SUVs and BMWs with custom vanity plates,
 Past palatial homes with white columned porticos,
 Manicured lawns, sculpted trees,
 Flower beds and five car garages,
 Quiet parks.
 Living seems good
 For those who have risen above the deplorables.
 Traffic obeys the stop signs.
 Cars signal before turning.
 Seldom are sirens heard
 Of police cars chasing criminals.
 Yet sometimes there is the wail of ambulances
 For pain and death still make social calls
 Behind the lovely facades.
 The roads are smooth and commodious
 As substantial bank accounts,
 Voluminous investments.
 Monumental mortgages.
 Life seems ordered and privileged--
 Like these streets.
  
 Driving around downtown,
 Asphalt is pitted and pot-holed.
 Traffic moves in jerks and bursts
 Like angry rats trapped in a maze
 Of poverty they can't escape.
 Pick ups and gardening trucks
 With peeling paint jobs and
 Expired tags on license plates
 Cough and roar through stop signs.
 Why obey authority
 When the system is rigged?
 Black clothed riders on bicycles
 Careen in and out of traffic
 Like crazed grim reapers
 Illuminated by headlights at the last moment.
 Police car and ambulance sirens
 Add their unholy howl to the enraged river of noise.
 Billboards advertising bail bonds and malt liquor
 Loom above tired, worn-out homes
 With old appliances lurking in the yards.
 Homeless push their shopping carts
 Holding all their worldly possessions
 Bound up in bulging black plastic bags.
 They collapse on corners,
 Hoping for charity.
 Skeletal dogs whine and feral cats screech.
 The streets are explosive and needy--
 Can't make it to pay day,
 Minimum wage,
 Evicted.
 Life is cruel, hard and unjust--
 Like these streets. 

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Carla Joy Martin is a poet, pastel artist and piano instructor.  After living in New York, Scotland and Pasadena, she has now resided in Bakersfield for thirty-five years.  Carla enjoys promoting the arts in Bakersfield.  She hosts the Dukes Memorial Concerts as well as co-hosts the First Friday Open Mic Nights with Portia Choi.