there are jerks
where i work
so am alert
thing has to be done
its no fun
my jobs
is odd
it under my belt
to give help
so am sreacher
and a
CASEWORKER
Caseworker: Yams and Plantain
Cabrini-Green Housing Project
Chicago
Bienvenido’s comin’ over,
says his wife,
to ‘splain me
why the kids
have got no rice,
no beans,
how the landlord’s
shovin’ notes beneath
the door again.
In Puerto Rico Bienvenido
dug up yams,
was paid in plantain,
came over here,
brought his wife,
then his kids.
First New York,
then Chicago,
gave up yams,
gave up plantain,
just to drum
and make a living.
Donal Mahoney
Caseworker Takes Notes
I was there the day
there trickled down the wall
of an old man's room one roach
that stopped across
a canyon in the plaster till
the old man's elevated slipper fell.
The roach absorbed the blow
and as though perforated for that purpose
dissolved into an archipelago.
The old man looked at me
and patiently explained, "Despite my
constant smacking of its brethren
one roach each day will trickle down that wall
and pause and pose as if to say,
‘Go ahead and smack me, that's okay.'"
To take advantage of the archipelago at hand
the old man pointed toward the last palpitating island
and once again explained,
"Each roach I smack, you see,
offers me that same good-bye--
one last flicker of antennae."
Donal Mahoney
Caseworker Determining Eligibility
Cabrini-Green Projects
Chicago
The child, age two, hammocked in the half
moon of his mother’s arms, is locked
in palsy, yet moves an eyelid as I ask,
moves the other as his mother answers,
application form interrogation.
The father was a white policeman.
“Curiosity,” the mother says. “No more.
I didn’t go with him for money.”
Donal Mahoney