Landlords
7/17/11
They shut off my phone three days before the power stopped. I call Con Edison from the downstairs neighbor's house, and tell them that my name is Gates and that I'd moved in earlier today, gave them my brother's social, date of birth, and a midwestern "thanks." They say to give it three days.
10/25/11
I spend $2 on Nostrand for a slice and a cigarette, then email Mike again to ask him if he'd sent that check. My father wrote me again asking why my phone is still dead. I hate to disappoint, so I lie a little more each time; "oh it's nothing, it's fine."
1/25/12
I didn't leave the house today, the landlord, he's been seen around. Monday he waited all day in a car parked at the neighbor's house. We changed the locks when he turned off our heat. I called the city and they didn't do a thing. Today it's cold so I huddle around a pot of boiling water and create fake resumes.
I don't want to be a fuckup.
I don't want to be a fuckup.
I don't want to be a fuckup.
I don't want to be a fuckup.
I don't want to be a fuckup.
I don't want to be a fuckup.
I don't want to be a fuckup.
I don't want to be a fuckup.
3/30/12
Ahmad burned the kitchen down a couple weeks before he left. Aaron's packing up tonight to crash with friends in Providence. I'm lying on the floor of my room with a fever of 102, on a pile of dirty clothes that I've used since I gave away my bed. And the power's out again... And I get to thinking... We can find a way to take everything that we need. And we can find a way to need only what we can take from the people in this world who've found a way to take everything.
Baby, baby, baby, maybe help me bend the mold to break.
I read the landlord's mail that gets delivered to our house. He's racking up more debts to honest people he won't pay. They're running to the courts to help them with this little problem. But if they want a problem fixed, they're going about it the wrong way.
I used to think of bigger things, of big ideas and bigger plans, but then the little things they grew and grew, until they filled the vessel up with nothing. I believe in Jesus Christ, only somewhat, and not all that often. I don't believe it's wrong to kill. It isn't kind but that's not quite the metric of the world we're living in.
You have no idea what I can do. I'm not going anywhere.
You have no idea what I can do. I'm not going anywhere