Rich and Poor

[Ann Bingham]

RICH AND POOR

Single mother tries to feed bade
on minimum wage
just enough to not qualify for help
not enough to make the bills.

Bronzed man working in the streets
making well enough to have his fancy truck
big house on the hill
drowning in his debt far beyond his means

Debutante housewife sits with her lover
while her white color husband busts his ass
for her to sink him further down
with her furs and jewels, and a couple of other men

Drunken husband stealing money so he can get his fix
while his children look on at the portrait he paints
across his wife’s scarred face
she only held back enough for the rent this month

Prostitute sitting in the doctors office again
to cheep to take birth control, or have her john
wear his rain coat, they want to feel the real thing
pay the consequences later, abortion, syphilis, the clap

Men underground, skin blacken, lungs blacken
for the fuel we crave, burning up all the resources’
while a wife and kids mourn the death of yet another good man
lain to rest with the fossils we all shall soon become.

04-14-07

[inkedgoddess]

cool anna
checking out your
window slices
of this thing
we gotta do
called life

[Arcadia]

she came to talk about her kid
we were supposed to talk about him...
two years in the same grade
riots problems
atention problems
comprehension problems
writing problems
math problems...
her two arms and hands full of vendas
we talked
when she was about to leave
I asked her about the vendas
what happened there?, do you burned your arms and hands?
she answered with a strange smile
and said that she cut them
to added quickly that well, somebody cut them
also her chest
two big cuchillas
that she tried to stop with her arms and her hands
and that now he is with homicide charges, prófugo
somewhere else
she kept smiling
and talking of someone else