poem of the day 02.06.10

back on grub street

he came from
a lower middle class family
but excelled in school
well enough to get accepted
into a prestigious college
on a scholarship

he did well there for a little bit
until one night he met a whore on the street

he fell madly in love with her.

he used to give her money
to take care of herself
to keep from whoring

when his money ran out
he started stealing from friends and faculty
to keep things going the way they were

but like anything else
he was found out

the scholarship was taken away
the friends shunned him
the family disowned him
he did a month of hard labour
but the whore stuck around

all of the sacrifices he made
showed her that he loved her
that he was in it for the long haul.

she stopped whoring
she and the writer got married.
he settled in to work and write books
while she settled in to have his children.

but the books didn’t sell

he had to take a job tutoring
she started drinking to pass the time

they separated and he continued
to give her money like back in the old days
like when she was whoring.

they were creatures of habit after that.

she kept at the booze
he kept at the books.
she drank until she died
he finally found a little bit of success
in the publishing world

he wrote a novel
that is still thought about a little bit today

he got married again as well

another working class woman

they had two children together
lived peacefully for a little while
until she went insane
and had to be institutionalized
for the rest of her life.