Plummeting Sparrows

Preowned cars once filled the abandoned
lot, plastic triangle pendants encircled
a former fleet of hot ticket vehicles, slap
against each new breeze demanding
attention, heralding mediocrity’s ghosts.

Within hallowed walls of showroom floors,
sales rocketed under great bargains’ guise,
female brokers garnered trust among other
women & played Salome to soft underbellies
of compensating males during midlife crises.

Cyclone fences replaced parking slots
untrimmed trees encroached on concrete
walkways, covered asphalt roads, crept-up
granite structures formerly bathed in floodlights:
a nightmarish extravaganza returned to nature.

Opulence & trash remained randomly scattered;
bald Michelin tires buttressed oak flats stacked
by chipping bricks with crumbling mortar, ignored,
the disuse syndrome defined each tagger’s canvass:
graffiti lost pop, images distorted, expression’s lost.

Aus scham! Aus scham! (For Shame! For Shame!)
Commerce overlooked customers & focused on merchants
who passed out their business cards, fed on pipe
dreams of leisure & bountiful coffers, increased supply
to a dwindling demand—left a 21st century compost heap.