(d)Evolution: urban decay

if you don't answer, i'll just ring it off the wall

one.

Outside the boarded-up Safeway, a plaque says the shopping center was built thirty years ago.

Persian restaurant, dry cleaner, pet supplies, Dollar Store. Two pizza joints, two nail salons, two preschools.

We building an ark here?

two.

Housing surge. Housing crash. Foreclosures. Politics. Recession. Pandemic. Housing surge. Housing crash. Foreclosures. Politics. Inflation. Shortages: toilet paper, vaccines, workforce, money. Especially that.

Why we can’t have nice things

three.

Cardboard Burger King crown gathering dust. Rancid grease embedded in stucco. Faded window stickers: “Everything’s $1.” Staticky Muzak on overhead speakers. Syringes and Styrofoam.

Everything as empty as the strip mall itself.