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| The well at Gabo |
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| From Let Us Now Praise Famous Men |
Rich and poor are not relative
Somebody’s got to be at the top
Of the megamega bucks and
Somebody’s at the bottom there
May be a few tied for the max
There are likely millions groveling
In financial basements just as the
Filthily lucred cannot be discerned
From simple comparison of bank
Balances the penniless vary in
Degrees of debt likewise the
Destitute of mild climes are without
Doubt wealthier than those of
Frozen lands do you lay your
Head to sleep on one thousand thread
Count sheets or rocks at the beach
I can see when a family is poor
Whether they have a television
Cable or air that may have been
The measure years ago but if
They have no land they rent
All they have and are likely
To miss payments often enough
To befriend the repo man
Heck even if they have land
It’s probably rented like
Sharecroppers of the south
Indentured ‘thirties dustbowlers
Banks can take their land
Away leave them their touching
Haunting photogenic iconic selves
I’m sure they did not receive
Royalties for appearing in
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
Nor a mention in The Grapes
Of Wrath like our times’ homeless
Defrauded in the machinations
Of the Great Recession which
Has yet to place a criminal in
Jail for theft our church is linked
To a town in Haiti congregants
Who traveled there last week
Posted numerous pix of the
Peoples their children huts
Spoke of how they use soiled
Water for washing food
Preparation I hope not much
Else last year we raised funds to
Enable the town to have a
Well yet to be operating
The poor here who live in hovels
Probably can get water from their
Taps are they rich by comparison
Hardly they are as desperate as
The poor of any primitive land
There’s no assurance they will
Have anything tomorrow that’s
What unites the wretched of
The earth they are excluded from
The society who can rely on
Having a home food water
Tomorrow
c. J.S.Manista, 2015
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