My o'l apartments

CATEGORY

life

In my neighborhood apartments man, personal problems always seem to leak outside your front door frame. Nothing but drywall and a couple two-by-fours dividing you. A bunch of strangers made to live together, in what seems like a big o'l house. Secret relationships coming afloat, to be revealed. A love affair born in the laundromat. You can cut the tention with a knife. Or just his throat. There's a gossip that she's got a habit, forcing her to steal from family again, you clearly heard the accusations on the stairs. We all did. Right before her sister smacked her across her cheek. She used to look real good before she got hooked, now she looks sick. Yo - Junior's brother Gato, used to get with her before he broke his knee. Messed up how he went from Golden-gloves to a stick-up kid. At least he didn't do it here, in the hood. Think he's coming back here to the apartments, when he's done..?..I mean, when he's done doing his bid.? ("he was a cool cat") Teenagers growing up together, getting blunted in the stairwell - . "Crackin" on each other, getting mad, step two - learning how to fight. For hours we would talk about how things could be a little better. Better if.... If, what? Beer bottles left around ,pissing in every hidden corner and the neighbors had enough. Damn, Mrs. Martinez called the cops again. Police already know everyone's first and last names. They call us future "Dope Boyz". Then they said we had to leave, but where we gonna go, we live here.. It's our block. Our world. We'll come back out once po-po leaves. My boy's cousin has a couple baby-mamas in the same apartment building. It's easier for when the weekend comes and he gotta pickup all them children. Neighborhood apartments, my first love, forgot her name. I do remember those tight jeans she wore, yea, they were Edwins. A PortoRican girl that moved in to the third floor building by the courts. They had to move here. Real far, cause her older brother got in some beef back in New York. Neighborhood apartments brah. Buddy's got a Beemer flipping meat in Mickey-D's. Project housings pretty cheap. Even cheaper if your section's eight. I grew up and moved away but when I'm back in town. I make it a point to drive thru. Burn one as I reminisce thru the tinted windows. Everything's changed. People moved on. Some passed away. But that feeling I get when Im there breaks my heart in a beautiful way. I'm glad that I grew up where I grew up. Good times. My old neighborhood apartments.    -L.A.G.