Skid row, marginal.
Some will call it home
Emptied for the art walk
While the missions close
Pop-up tent cities
Abounding
Birthing scant displaced humanity

As we diversify
We spill from cities
Beyond the wealth crest
Traditional boundaries

Everything meant to burn.
Thirty-year cycles
Mud pots, sandstone bluffs,
Crumble and erode
Fault lines, fortitude
Small streets
Swell into grand avenues

As we devalue
Debtors of the dream
Living oblivion
Skin-deep sun-seeking

Life in the construct that's sold
Promised land, golden state,
Sunny, blissful
No longer affordable
Surviving California