{"id":14229,"date":"2025-12-28T18:36:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T18:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/?p=14229"},"modified":"2026-02-18T18:38:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T18:38:06","slug":"towers-for-the-poor-patricia-carragon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/?p=14229","title":{"rendered":"TOWERS FOR THE POOR &#8211; Patricia Carragon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>They built a tower<br \/>\nfor those of moderate income.<br \/>\nThey placed a redline<br \/>\naround this tower\u2014<br \/>\ncamouflaged its identity.<br \/>\nThe people of the tower<br \/>\ndid get poorer,<br \/>\nand in time,<br \/>\nthis list got longer.<br \/>\nSo, they built another tower,<br \/>\nand another and another.<br \/>\nThe dominos of poverty<br \/>\nformed a pattern of towers.<br \/>\nThe patterns multiplied,<br \/>\nand so did the redlines.<br \/>\nNo one outside the towers,<br \/>\ncared about the towers.<br \/>\nWith age came neglect\u2014<br \/>\ncracks formed tributaries on walls,<br \/>\nplaster and paint fell like hail.<br \/>\nIt might be sunny outside,<br \/>\nbut the ceilings knew precipitation.<br \/>\nAppliances, doors, and windows,<br \/>\nbroken like the system.<br \/>\nA buffet of trash a-plenty,<br \/>\na party for roaches, mice, and rats.<br \/>\nIf inspectors paid visits,<br \/>\nthey\u2019d write up reports<br \/>\nto be filed under \u201cinaction.\u201d<br \/>\nThey got paid for work not done,<br \/>\nlike the politicians who lie<br \/>\nand pick your pockets.<br \/>\nThe violations multiplied<br \/>\ninto an explosion.<br \/>\nOne tower\u2019s wall collapsed,<br \/>\nbut no one was hurt.<br \/>\nThe tower was declared unsafe.<br \/>\nThe poor were evacuated<br \/>\nto temporary shelters.<br \/>\nWas the culprit an unchecked boiler<br \/>\nor a faulty chimney?<br \/>\nThe city plans to investigate,<br \/>\nbut we know why that tower fell.<br \/>\nLike that flick of the finger<br \/>\nwhen playing dominoes,<br \/>\nwhich tower will fall next?<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">*<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-6570\" src=\"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/nn-patricia_carragon_author_photo_for_innocence_0.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"156\" height=\"208\" \/>Patricia Carragon is known throughout New York City as an energetic and indefatigable writer\/poet\/curator who runs the long-running and popular Brownstone Poets Reading Series, promoting poetry nationally and internationally. She is the editor of the online journal, Sense and Sensibility Haiku, and an emerging photographer. Her work is widely published and she is the author of the <em>The Cupcake Chronicles<\/em> (Poets Wear Prada, 2017); a haiku\/photography chapbook on cats, <em>Meowku<\/em> (Poets Wear Prada, 2019); and her debut novel, <em>Angel Fire<\/em> (Alien Buddha Press, 2020). Her poetry collections comprise <em>Innocence<\/em> (Finishing Line Press, 2017), <em>Urban Haiku and More<\/em> (Fierce Grace Press, 2010), and <em>Journey to the Center of My Mind<\/em> (Rogue Scholars Press, 2005). Her latest jazz poetry collection is <em>Stranger on the Shore<\/em> (Human Error Publishing, 2026).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>They built a tower for those of moderate income. They placed a redline around this tower\u2014 camouflaged its identity. The people of the tower did get poorer, and in time, this list got longer. So, they built another tower, and another and another. The dominos of poverty formed a pattern of towers. The patterns multiplied, [&#038;hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14252,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[496,223],"class_list":["post-14229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry","tag-bushwick-brooklyn","tag-street-art"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14229"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14328,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14229\/revisions\/14328"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}