thirty days
my mother emails me
my cousin, steve, got thirty days
in the county pen
for a number of things
and after that he gets two years
of house arrest
being allowed out only to go
to whatever job he’s able to get
in this shit hole economy
they’ve foreclosed on his house
the bank has taken away his car
he has three dogs and two cats
and no one to care for them
his pretty blonde girlfriend has nowhere to stay
with the house gone
and worst of all, steve,
has a seven year-old daughter, melanie
she was born when he was twenty
and her mother was fifteen
she has blonde hair too and likes to imagine
and read
and lights up a room
in ways that most people fail do to ever
melanie’s mother lives with a guy who beats
the shit out of her
while melanie watches television
and her father, my cousin, steve,
can never seem to find the time
to spend with her
in between his assault charges
and drug peddling arrests
and if you ask me right now
i’m no moralist but melanie
is the real victim in all of this mess
as the world will be a victim
when she gets older
and her beautiful blue eyes turn to ice
her heart withers
and the human misery suffocates
yet another generation
because people can never just
get their shit together
but must keep dragging it all down
into dust.
Powerful, partner ...
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