Fire Escape Dreamers

They see only what they need
That desire to see beyond
The heat and squalor
The effrontery to our species' senses
The sentient beings whose 2nd bedroom
Remains the fire escape

How haunting
The mangy dog sniffing the gutter below
Ribs needing something besides vanishing hair
To protect his fragile existence
His pride long gone
Like the optimistic glow of a downtrodden eye
Slowly closing in the darkness of lost hope

Yet
Somehow
The animal survives
Knows no towel to throw
Not ropes to hang upon
No round bell of ending to depend upon

We contemplate

High above
TV antennae sway precariously
Moon's glow the spotlight
This era of cable
Beyond reach
HD a dream
Rabbit ears struggling to survive
Yet another era of poverty

For such mutual survivors
Resting on window sills
Splayed on cast iron escapes
Atop pillow and laundry
The square screen offering fantasy survival
Providing dreams in the bed of hope
Even though void of reality
So innocent
They survive greed's harsh weapons
Enduring further nights of longing
Endemic to Manhattan's perpetual struggle
Syria's
Athens'
Perhaps even tomorrow's Kenya

When does the glad hand of deception disappear
The reach of power's greed meet its end?

To talk
To negotiate
To be human
Some believe
Remains futility's endowment

Never perhaps an epiphanous platform
But fire escapes around the world
Will always afford relief for the moment
Trusting someday
There will be
No need
For such painful dreaming