Steven Kent

Slopping By
   (with apologies to R.F.)

Whose house this is I think I know.
He's hated in the village, though;
The man is frankly pure white trash,
And someone needs to tell him so.

He bought it for ten thousand cash —
Back then, this didn't make a splash,
But now that values here have soared,
His rank neglect is madly rash.

He laughs that upkeep leaves him bored,
While neighbors near and far are floored
By broken windows, knee-high grass,
And piles of junk and rubbish stored

Among the weeds and shattered glass.
Our zoning board is weak, alas —
They ought to fine his lazy ass;
They ought to fine his lazy ass.

Steven Kent is the poetic alter ego of writer and musician Kent Burnside (www.kentburnside.com). His work appears in 251, Asses of Parnassus, The Dirigible Balloon, The Hypertexts, Light, Lighten Up Online, The Lyric, New Verse News, The Orchards Poetry Journal, Philosophy Now, The Pierian, Pulsebeat Poetry Journal, The Road Not Taken: A Journal of Formal Poetry, Snakeskin, Well Read, and Well Met. His collections I Tried (And Other Poems, Too) (2023) and Home at Last (2025) are published by Kelsay Books.