Some Poems

To Alex:

It was already too late
By the time I met you
The wariness was already
In your young eyes
But still I hoped
That the promise
That was slowly
Leeching out of you
Would somehow win the day
It did not

You are so smart
But "teacher's pet"
Is a worse fate
Than the ignorance
Your choices will beget
But I cannot criticize
A young man whose life
Flashes before his eyes
Whenever (if ever)
He starts to realize
the trap that he has laid
For himself in the gang-colored
Shade he now rests in
Under dimmer stars
And a smaller moon
And sun

A life seemingly
Just begun was
Over before we met
Now when I hear on the news
Some young man
From your neighborhood
Is dead - shot dead -
By some other lost boy
Lost in the fear and lies
I cry until I can find out
If it was you
Or maybe one of your
Brothers
Dead
Never having gotten to live
Free from the servitude
Of lies or sin or fear
Never more free
To at least try
To begin again


Walmart Hillbillies

A little girl missing one of her
Second-hand shoes
Wiggling gloriously free
Bare toes for a few moments at least
Curly light brown hair and
A sweet little girl smile
Eyes alight with love
As she gazes at her Dad awhile
Slender - almost gaunt -
He looks back at her
Baseball cap (a' la brand name tools)
On his slightly misshapen head
Maybe his Momma drank too many beers
He looks around for his little son
A wisp of a child
Dissapating down the aisles
Like a kitten-footed mist
A mystery - a whisper -
All three needed a wash
All the clothes were dirty too
Daddy was glaring - sullen and unshaved -
Mad at a world
That does not have room in its heart
To really care
Whether he can find his daughter's shoe
Or bathe his kids or himself
Is there even running water in their
Shack or house?
Little brownie-topped sweetie
Minus a shoe
Smiled as she looked back
Wiggling her bare toes
Under the glare
Of a thousand lights
That do not shine for her