Vertical Judgment,
San Francisco 2012
somebody's mother
sister
holding an empty cup
at a street corner on
Van Ness and Market
somebody's father
brother
rummaging a trash can
by the bus stop at
Union and Laguna
did you see that
did you see that
it makes you puke
remembering
the blessedness
of the biblical poor
publicly gleaning
in humble sackcloth
but this is America
you said
that poor man
has a cell phone
that poor woman
has a tv in her room
even genius Einstein
did not own
a cell phone and
magnate Henry Ford
never had
a color tv
poverty in 2012 USA
a huckster’s joke
in an abundant land
of big moneybags
and bigger next social
media money-making
schemes
and so you turn
your fresh face away
annoyed that they are
littering your designer
pup’s view
standing sitting lying
in your space (on your
way to that new
fusion restaurant
or that fancy dog spa)
a public place
you paid for and
worked for with
government propped
low taxes while the
prodigals only wait and
wait as you salivate
religiously at the altar of
the ballooning bull
in our sinned
city of brotherly love.
Copyright ©2012 Melba Abela
