kind compliments that you don't forget

while getting out

the car

in downtown dc, 

not far from a local pub,

my brother and i,

both of us dressed neatly

with good

shoes and ironed clothes,

smelling fancy

with cologne, were sneered

at by

a couple of hard

nosed gangsters

packing heat,

they look at us,

up and down showing 

the gold

in their teeth.

it was a new

and improved

gentrified

part of the city where

row houses,

and crack dens

had been turned into

town houses

with pastel painted

brick and shutters with

small fenced in lots,

greens lawns,

and poodles

with rhinestone collars

prancing around.

these boys from hood

shook their heads at us

and said to one another,

what's up with all these

gay dudes moving into

our part of town.