Southside

There are stadiums with fewer parking spaces than this strip mall

Where nearly every occupied storefront has the words

Thrift, outlet, bargain, dollar, pawn, cheap

All of the food here is fast

And the mobile home park is surrounded by the kinds of businesses

That endure by clinging to the poorest

Checks cashed, electronics bought, greenback advances against your car title

Low-rent strip clubs make work out of words like “foxes” and “babes”

While women gather for other reasons at “The Best Little Hair House”

Urban hipsters still travel down to embrace two of the city’s last drive-ins

One with movies, the other with milkshakes and pie

<<< Open Country South • German Village/Merion Village >>>

Poem ©Tracy Zollinger Turner, 2014.
These pieces were originally used as a narrative for the photography
exhibit 25 on High in Columbus, Ohio’s Urban Art Space.