Email Poem

Your IP Address: 18.118.14.81

Your Email Address:

To Email Address:

Subject

Personal Note:

Poem Title:

Poem

Dad 
born into white hot poverty  
eldest son of an adulterous drunk
abandoned
man of the house at five
white privilege.
His step father , also a booze bunny and bigot to boot...
to escape 
he went to vocational school
like all poor boys did back in the day
white privilege....
married to young
a couple of sons...
was promised a job out west,by of all people, the adulterous drunk...
3000 dreamy miles later
two small boys swirling in the prospectors' pan
but all the gold had vanished by then
white privilege.

He managed to make ends almost meet
shovel for hands , soul of concrete
white privilege
We survived in a one bedroom, converted chicken coop,
he the king of the desperate clutch at twenty two
supported all without complaint
including deadbeat uncle frank
white privilege.
Divorced 
lost custody of his doves
staggered back home 
into the embrace of the drunken bigot 
white privilege

Forty years he wore the burning wreath 
of back breaking gigs on gravel dreams
2 forward 2 back
for crumbs gilded as food
His X dies
reunited with his boys-his life
white privilege
a swing shift job full of benzene hula hoop rings
brought a whiff of stability
willing us away from the decay of poverty
after four decades,earned the right 
to hang up the shovel and pan,
the concrete settling into the joints
of his turtle hands
white privilege

to be greeted by prostrate cancer
courtesy of Mr Benzene ring
but he battled back
white privilege
open heart surgery
he battled back once again
white privilege
buried his mom
and clusters of other loves
white privilege
lived and died with all of our follies
white privilege
78 years 
on a battlefield of concrete
and blistered dreams
white privilege
 
I'm privileged to have known 
such a man
white privilege

CAPTCHA Preview

Type the characters you see in the picture

Required