they **** the sky until it chokes—
smoke bleeding out of sunless lungs.
the streets are veins, pulsing rot,
paved with teeth and **** and prayers
that never made it past the ceiling.

they crown the liars, gild their throats
and cheer as they spit on starving mouths.
children chew on cigarette butts,
draw hope in blood on concrete—
and no one looks down.

preachers scream from gold-lined pulpits,
but their hands are deep in graves,
******* innocence like it's owed.
the gods are drunk. the angels mute.
and hell?
hell is gentrified. rent's due.

i. eliska writes
ii. plagiarism is a crime
iii. small letters intended