for years mary lou worked for the town’s only doctor’s wife taking care of her children preparing meals cleaning her house and ushering away the numerous gin bottles scattered all over the house like dust bunnies so the good doctor wouldn’t find them but this refined lady let mary lou go saying women like her needed one of those foreign housekeepers not just an old colored lady so mary lou let go too of all those well-kept secrets all over town
the small space
between
his nightmares
and
his reality
has grown smaller
he no longer
stares out
his window
searching for
empty promises
to be fulfilled
nor
does he pray
anymore
he has grown
to realize
that whatever god
there may be
his lot in life
is not
a priority
for that god
or
any god
so why would he
expect
that his fellow man
would give a damn
to them
he’s
a homeless bum
not worthy
of
their consideration
for anything
just scrap paper
to be
swept away
before
morning rush-hour
but once
his hands
cleared the land
that fed them
then
they called him
an essential worker
till the land dried up
and
nothing could grow
the bank took his land
outstanding loans
the land still stands naked
hometown
a ghost town
and
he
a ghost
of
society
these webs are so unjust flies always die staring into my eyes with the most incriminating looks as if i were the one who spun this web but i and those generations before me have been trapped within these fibers of lies and promises for centuries had i been born with more mass i would have flown right through this social web no more inconvenienced than needing a quick shower afterwards but that is not the case i linger here as a bit of amusement and as a morsel for a boring day a systemic slave the quintessential essential worker to be devoured or left to just decay and die
Read Between the Minds 