The Wrong Side of Life

In any city there have always been places where it is best

not to go. Dark streets where cold wind carries paper

trash along the sidewalk like tumbleweed and hostile eyes

watch you pass without seeming to look. Brighter places

warped by corruption, where darkness lives in the heart

and the soul. Ordinary places where ordinary people are

swept up in the gale of events and carried away to fates

darker than they ever imagined.

Lock the doors and draw the window curtains. Retreat

into your deepest sanctuary. Take a walk on the wrong

side of life.