Food Stamps

that mother with the three kids
and the food stamps
didn't ask her husband to leave
when her
daughter was only three
months old
so I really don't appreciate
you thinking you have any right
to scold her

and when she applied for 6 jobs this week
because she's worked so hard for her degree
and they seemed impressed except
they think it's best if she starts on overnights
and weekends
       so that her kids can
       ache for their father
and now their mother too
        and so that she can pay
more than her wages
       for childcare
that she cannot find
       in a world that works from five to nine
I'm pretty sure I'd like to slap
anyone who scoffs at her for turning down
that great 'opportunity'

you think that because you can choose how to spend your days and dollars
that she has the same choice right?
except that since he left, she's been in a house that she can't pay for
with a landlord knocking on the door
and no money or credibility for a deposit
            elsewhere (
            Aston Martin tires squeal loudly in the background here)
               
The phones been turned off
and
buzzards fly overhead
making sure she stays in debt
by charging
sky-rocket interest
and locking the doors
on a car loan
that will keep her
off the roadside
with
her freezing children
and their thin coats
and
snowpants

grandpa scraped up change to buy them

So as she stands there,
trembling hands
with food stamps
barely able to glance at you...

it is           You
who is
poor,
Ugly and
Hideous.,
Self-righteously
eyeballing the ice cream in her cart
as if her kids should ever have to suffer
even more than
than your indignant eyes

Untitled

she has golden eyes
She's seen the part of you that cries
that part you never knew was broken
but she held your hand                                                     

and helped you tie your shoes,
turn your scribbles
into Somethings
write a story
With the sorrow
that she sat
through with you

Back in
slipper feet
Pajama days
we watched the world
wilt away
from our bunk-bed window
said a prayer together in the snow

and as gingerbread walls
collapsed 
By the wayside
we knew together where
To go

tear streaked
with
naked feet
dancing past
thistles
into a meadow of Once Upon a Times
we flew together
(although sometimes a part)
into the glittery
ashes of fairy tales
     discovering daily
how true they are
despite the wounds

that caused us drink them

i Know that

taciturn eyes
you taunt
when blistered hands plead to find your heart
through a soft scrape against
coarse whiskers
,you play
as if I do not belong to you
and you not to me.

I know
that
if first man had never fallen,
your love would have
grown inside of me,
tender      quick
as canna lilly
underneath my rib;

an echoing extension of you
with the very texture
and stamp of you
and you
would not laugh or cry
without awareness we are real

as it were,
as the dust has seen it,
               there is no blossom here,
just a handful of brambles
a beardful
            of apathy
and a mouthful
            of fears

why didn't you tell me

that God and religion are not the same
that first kisses
are nuclear weapons
trusted to an
impetuous enemy

that ...
sometimes doggedness
is a disease
born from a fear
of the foulest
weakness,

that everyone is capable
of breaking
themselves
and me

especially
everyone
You

angry birds

i don't write angry much
red is not my color
and blue will often do
but when red gets big enough
and hurdles right over rosy
my hand becomes its slave,
to open up the latch
and let
heart heat fly to its home,
on

pure
white paper;

bird flu capped
by the dam of my pen