Poetry Maybe #26: The Sting of Poverty

the years are not so far that i forget grandma

taking 5 little kids out in the heat
she made us hold onto an old beauty pageant sash
from a certain Miss Delta Burke

we walked all day

so long that our shoes would smoke
was the heat from being humiliated
housing is only for an exclusive set

not for the poor or elderly

unlucky for ancient grandma

who wants to feed 5 mouths

in her own kitchen that was taken

she said some exotic dancer could afford her kitchen
but now only loud music played in there. no hissing of tea kettles or popping of pasta sauce

we had to come with her 

no matter how much our little feet hurt
we had to be charming
not different
just like those normal kids on tv

that had a kitchen and their own bed
the police didn't come to their house
to inform the family that they had no home anymore

and no one cared if they had to sleep in a cardboard box

or a shelter with predators waiting to steal

whatever they wanted

ten hands waiting to 
stir the pot on grandma's stove
ten feet running from a stranger's touch
grandma was jobless

she would not leave us
is there an accurate way to leave

5 hungry children in their cardboard house
without a bath 

or any water besides

the what the hurricane brings

it was not right for that tv family

to have a better pretend house

that someone could build them a pretend kitchen

a writer could make a happy story 

where 5 precious grandbabies and their honorable granny

could live a

 life without 

the sting of poverty