Just Letting You Know

Do you see that girl over there? 
The one sitting on a curb, swinging her legs
back and forth,
and playing with her coarse braids 
as she talks quietly to her tattered teddy bear
The one who holds her whole world in a sack
slung onto her back 
I’m just letting you know
that you both are quite different
just letting you know her answer if you whisper
how are you in greeting 
so you won’t be surprised 

because while she has a house
a worn-down, thoroughly used small
 apartment 
she doesn’t have a home
and while your world
...er... neighborhood
is a perfect utopia of 
cul-de-sac barbecues with your vegan neighbors whose
kids can’t stop smiling and 
perfectly painted white picket fences  
and gorgeous nighttimes full of milky stars

that just somehow 
seem hand-painted onto the universe
with a delicate brush

hers is filled of muggy skies that clog her airway and
 break her voice
full of rooms stuffed with pencils,
lead that suffocates any living being 
that dares to breathe
you may have guardian angels
but the only creature that watches over her at night
is the cockroach that scurries from wall to wall 
the playgrounds are unused and yet overcrowded
at the same time 
schools are for learning yet 
somehow that seems less of a priority over 
violence 
low funding 
and too many students for too few teachers

the city washerman comes every day to
scrub the sidewalks
but somehow the redlining never fades 
they say welcome in 
when they mean get out
no rooms never means zero

it’s a new language
this discrimination that you need to learn 
it’s not hard when it’s so immersive 
you breath it in, ponder the contents,
let it fill your very soul 
and exhale out into the same world in a long sigh
unlike oxygen, it doesn’t change 
its chemical properties 

funny thing is, 
your rent both cost the same
but the cost of life is different 
everyone else may hide behind a mask of answers 
like good
and fine
but you can’t hide from housing discrimination 
so
I’m just letting you know that when you ask her 
how you are
I’m just letting you know
what she’ll say next