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| Poverty Street by miriclaire |
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You will notice this poem is fragmented -- because the lives it describes are thusly so.
This month's focus is money. This is about having none. Come down this street. Leave your sun screen and fresh salads. Your Band-Aids. Lampshades that match sofas. Come down in summer’s heat. There is no breakfast. Nobody has seen a kiwi or heard of poppyseed dressing but the neighbors once had an entire watermelon all to themselves. A child tries to imagine a plate piled high with bacon and toast. But he can’t. Ketchup sandwiches if you show up for lunch. Come down. Where the shoes are too big, or too small. They have stopped hoping for something new. Babies don’t need no birthdays. Momma said so. That cut should be looked at. But it won’t be. Teeth hurt and stay hurt. Then they fall out. It’s summer. You don’t need pajamas. Or supper. You don’t need a good book; you need a good slap. Momma said so. Who needs anything when you can collect bottle caps from the street? Someone nice has brought some broken toys. No matter. Everyone is broken here. Even the nicknames hurt. When mothers call out to children, it sounds like glass breaking. When mothers say their prayers, it sounds like kittens crying. Come down this street. Ketchup sandwiches if you show up for lunch.  | |
| Reader Reviews Review by imagine that at 12/27/07 12:12:30 So real. I lived on poverty street, and remember ketchup sandwiches'. I remember "Because Mommy said so." Rating: 5 Review by joerhea at 08/26/07 11:11:02 While reading I flashed to a family that lives in a box, so to speak. Being dirt poor is a terrible thing way to many people have to endure. Your words made feel for this fictional family of which you write about. It reminded me too of my college days, days were money was scarce. I hope I will never have to skip a child's birthday because we can't afford it. Well done!! Rating: 5 Review by lisamarie at 08/24/07 20:08:09 Is so true I see it so much in an organization I belong to. One person I heard on CBC had it right. If money were to be divided up equally it wouldn't be the rich all reciving the same amount of money for a single child as the poor!!!!!!!!! Well Put!!!!! Rating: 5 Review by lostmoney at 08/18/07 17:05:11 One of my first jobs as a teenager was as a waiter in a coffee shop in downtown Phoenix. I remember being introduced to my first counter made tomato soup there by a customer with not enough change in his pocket to even open a menu. The recipe.... one part hot water "free", three parts ketchup "free" and a small stack of saltine crackers from the basket typically hidden behind the counter. I remember it was also the same first day I found a better use for the tips left by my paying customers. Thanks for bringing life into clear view again. WW Rating: 4 Review by kareem at 08/17/07 13:01:01 Your poem is what i see everyday as a social worker. Many people don't see that side of life. Some don't want to see.
Kareem Rating: 4 Review by intubate at 08/15/07 19:07:41 Thanks for the perspective. It took me back to a time when our government tried to convince poor parents and their children that ketchup was a vegetable. Rating: 4 |
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