Poverty Impoverished

 

Meet me in the bumps and craters of the roads, finding your way before the sun rises

Meet me in the red glow of a dashboard clock never telling the right time

Meet me in tired eyes slipping sleep behind backs, between bells, from bus to bus

Meet me in blistered feet, in bloody shoes, in 10 hour shifts at 16 years old because the                   mortgage won’t pay itself

 

I am poverty impoverished

 

Meet me brown eyed girls whose daddies taught them how to shoot a gun and marry young,

military types you know the kind

Meet me trailers soaked in cigarettes, cinder, ash, soot

Meet me in the footpaths carve the trails of park

 

I am redundancy in action

 

Meet me in the cops that tip their hats at the cut of my dress, or is it the reflection of my skin

Meet me in sand pit gardens that always end up growing marijuana

Meet me in the boys that always plant it

 

I am the salt of the earth, the sweat on your brow

 

Meet me in lifers that talk about grit, tenacity, preaching to the pulpit speaking like God                Himself

Meet me in hypocrisy, tongue in cheek

Meet me in the envy of their eyes as you quit because you still can

Meet me in high tolerance red nosed fathers and the lessons they teach

Meet me in the red badges that will teach you the rest

Meet me in blue collars and bootstraps, four generations deep, son begets son begets son                begets son

 

I am the man you fear most, the many