Am I better or
Worse than thy?
I’m employed.
Is this good or
is this bad?
If I slept in the streets,
Wouldn’t I still dream?
Or when died,
Do I still dream?
I don’t know,
would that knowledge keep
my in place?
I walk in the presence of
My good and evil,
So I truly don’t give a fuck!
Be….
I’m a dishwasher.
I’m 59 years old, a statistically bleak future with no retirement saved up.
I will likely die poor.
Yet, I have enough ambition and faith in myself to believe that I can change that outcome.
So, no quarter.
I’ll fight until my last breath….
I decided to visit my home city, Detroit, (and no, the one in Michigan, on a river!).
Glad I did, because I got to see family and friends, take some pics – and remember why I left.
I’m going to have to bring this full circle….
I used to watch the evening news,
then I stopped, to only watch it online.
All declared, all is well: business as usual.
I can see the ribbs,
I can see the lack.
Mean while, all is well: business as usual.
I laid in bed
with nothing to do.
I watched bad movies
with unfulfilling plots.
I read old books,
(I’ve read them before,
nothing new or useful….)
I failed the flu test,
so I can’t go back to work
my unfulfilling job,
So I can continue to rent out
My roach motel.
It’s a wonderful life….
From the diameter the tents
and tarps stretches
into infinity
Small, large,
they never reach
three stories but
Only two:
Poverty and
Deeper poverty.
The cities surround
Skyscrapers of
Glass,
but no one
lives in them.
I served two in the Iraqi War,
A decorated veteran
I won a Senate seat
Then two turns as President….
(I only made it to Wisconsin….)
I like the majority of the poor
make a living wage,
afford decent housing
never threatened
with homelessness….
I am free.
Perhaps, if I could exchange my head for something younger, unclouded, full of hope and wonder, I could feel differently about the world.
I don’t see it improving very much for the poor, especially the homeless anytime soon.
Why?
Because the institutions that could do something, are not only not doing anything, they don’t not know what to do.
It’s like watching a fire feed it self.
So I try to watch.
But to aware in this world, you must watch.
And it is always painful to see.
I wouldn’t bring children
into the world,
knowin’ her skin can get her in trouble.
That her body is not her own.
Her spirit chained,
dreams dying hard.
Children shouldn’t be enslaved.
Dirt and fear.
Children
watchin’ those children,
learn’ untruths.
Naw, this ain’t just about race or
poverty.
It’s the way of the world….
Naw, I wouldn’t.
A blackened vine,
its vines thick,
unseened and ignored,
covering
concrete and
crumbling brick.
Nutured and
fed,
fruits
of desperation
feed a
workforce.
But good plants
change when
its environment
changes,
and
Now
it
feeds
upon everything
and
everyone.
It wasn’t always like
this,
but poverty can
be a bitch.
First there were
the anointed and
chosen,
then
slaves,
then came
accountants
and laws
to make
everything legal
in the eyes of God.
And all is well.
Life Raft In The Abyss 