November 20th, 2012
The first worst time is when
They said it was cancer.
The second worst time is
When they called and said
She expired.
The third worst time is
When they said we won’t help.
You bury her because
You didn’t pay the bills on time.
And you should have a job eventually
Your mother needed 24 hrs care
And we pretended that YOU
Didn’t need any help
The fourth worst time is when
They refused to pay me my
Deposit back because they
Claim I didn’t notify them
On time. Then their bitch ass
SPaul said “do what you gotta do.”
The fifth worst time
Is when you said I could
Stay with you for a while
But your face said “I don’t want you here.”
The sixth worst time is
When I had to sleep next to
A broad who
Reeked like a sewer
What comes to me is
Treachery….from even I
Reminisce on my so-called
Fa-mil ly who fucked me
And told me fuck you
They said you used to be
Smart…you used to be
Pretty…used to be…
We thought you were gonna
Be sumthin
Say what?
See here Jigga boos
Living in ghetto zoos
Waitin on the 1st & 15th
The only time you brush your
Teeth Persecuting wit yo
Ignoramus brain insane off
Crack & weed cuz you won’t
Kill your demons…So you
Laugh at the ones who
Got me surrounded You can
You and YOU….claim to
Have sumthin legit but you
Can’t quit smoking that shit
Hippocrit
Laugh cuz u IS dumb founded
Cuz dumb found you and
Bound you.
This story was written by Soni, a poverty skolar from the Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA CAN), for the Voices of Poverty Resist series. This series was launched out of a fellowship that Lisa received from the Marguerite Casey Foundation for journalism focused on poverty. Because Lisa leads with her indigenous values of inter-dependence she has created this collective journalism process where all of our voices in poverty are speaking for ourselves.