FOUR FEATHERS PRESS ONLINE EDITION: CITY LIVING Send up to three poems on the subject of or just using either the words city and/or living totaling up to 150 lines in length in the body of an email message or attached in a Word file to donkingfishercampbell@gmail.com by 11:59 PM PST on February 16th. No PDF's please. Color artwork is also desired. Please send in JPG form. No late submissions accepted. Poets and artists published in Four Feathers Press Online Edition: City Living will be published online and invited to read at the Saturday Afternoon Poetry Zoom meeting on Saturday, February 17th between 3 and 5 pm PST.

Saturday, February 17, 2024

Michelle Smith

City Living


Is a  freeway underpass

Inhabitants in  forest green tarps 

or in Dodger blue 

build makeshift tents the City of LA 

welcomes you

And their worldly  possessions

may be their last

On the gray slab of the concrete

Anyone can lay down for free

The cement is cool in the day 

and cold at night on the body,

who will fight, flight, or sadly freeze?

My wooden gray apartment floor

envelops a breeze that inflames my

knees arthritis, stiffening joints and I

can turn on a heater and blanket at a moment 

Instead of competing for the nearest space

and huddle with another human for warmth.


This is America home of the free and brave.

So many unhoused rather than say homeless

Since the wording is more cliche they say.


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