Will They Let You Be Poor Anymore

by Carol Denney

will they let you be poor anymore
can you just get a room or a bed
without three thousand dollars
in first month’s and last month’s
for just a roof over your head
 
will they let you be poor anymore
with a job somewhere pushing a broom
washing up dishes
and flipping a stack
won’t even get you a room
 
do we all have to be CEOs
or work for VC-funded techs
do we all have to work
sixty hours a week
at jobs where we’re all nervous wrecks
 
will they let you be poor anymore
and work for an honest day’s pay
did it all go to China
or India and if it did
then let’s all go today
 
I don’t need much to be happy
I may be poor but not sad
it’s always just scrambling around
for a roof and a job
that can make me feel bad
 
will they let you be poor anymore
and go home at the end of the day
a place of your own
just a room to call home
earned with an honest day’s pay
 
 
 

“It Is What It Is”

by Claire J. Baker

I dislike that glib
summing up of
hurtful experience:
“It is what it is.”
What happened to
sincere concern?
A long warm hug?
Tears shared?
Tissues provided?
A ride home
to a warm bed?
 
Have we forgotten
how to be kind
as in kind-red?
 
 
 

Worse Comes to Worse

by George Wynn

Every day
an old man
hungry and sick
with sleeping bag
living minute to minute
stumbles
coming from
Ocean Beach
 
Every day
some young girl
or some young boy
hungry and sick
like a frightened cat
living minute to minute
rest on the ground
and give a
shivering prayer
on a downtown
lonely
street
 
Our City
by the Bay
is more full
of homelessness
than you
can even
imagine

"A Woman Alone on the Street."
“A Woman Alone on the Street.”

 

Gentrification Blues

by George Wynn

She closes the door
of her studio
by Dolores Park
hands the landlady
(who jacked up her rent
damn near double)
the key
“If anyone should ask
tell them I won’t be back
to Cable Car land”
and begins her long
wandering inside
America’s abandoned
homes
 

At the VA Clinic

by Claire J. Baker

A veteran of Korea
shuttles patients
and visitors
 
all around the grounds.
In spare time, he makes
maple and oak canes
 
for younger vets,
paints the fresh canes
red-white-and-blue.
 

The Revolutionaries Met Today

by Carol Denney

the revolutionaries met today
to show the world a better way
and the men all had a lot to say
and the women cleaned up after
the women cleaned up after
the women cleaned up after
the men all had a lot to say
and the women cleaned up after
 
the revolutionaries marched along
they chanted and they sang a song
they all went on about what’s wrong
and the women brought the food
the women brought the food
the women brought the food
and on and on about what’s wrong
and the women brought the food
 
the revolutionaries made a pact
to blow things up and not look back
and always have each others’ back
and the women paid the rent
the women paid the rent
the women paid the rent
and always have each others’ back
and the women paid the rent
 

After an NPR Newscast

by Claire J. Baker

“Birds are on the decline,”
especially sparrows and larks,
while “twittering people”
are on the rise —
don’t ask this poet why or now.
 
Dear remaining birds,
if you have a song to sing,
please sing it now.