NaPM, April 18, 2020

[Todd]

Confessions of a Slumlord

You made a wrong turn
coming here in your sports car
like you just won ten dollars
in a beauty contest,
and want to celebrate
at some gastropub. You can roll
out of here with your gentrification
back to Park Place. I see you glancing
down beneath that top hat
like I'm the criminal for letting cockroaches
live in my building—you mean
tenants, not bugs. I should go to jail
for building homes. It's my fault
that I don't have a dowsing rod
to fill the pipes with water. That I can't make
lightning light up the neighborhood.
You must think it's Christmas. 
I don't own the utilities.