34 Moments-- Days of the Poor
Location
1. Late night trains going by a dark apartment
2. Cold Campbell’s from the can
3. $5 left in the back of your wallet
4. Goodwill
5. Sleeping over the vent in the kitchen ‘cause the bedroom is too cold
6. The broke and broken nodding to you on street corners
7. Biting your lip when bills come
8. Stealing water from convenient stores
9. Counting all your money five times just in case
10. Painting color in a world without any
11. Picking up money in gutters
12. The joy in smiling
13. Tracing years on your skin
14. Running out of fingers when you count your mistakes
15. Breaking open piggybanks
16. Staring at a tattered soul in a cracked mirror
17. Eviction notices
18. Pink slips
19. Desperately trying to climb up to touch the poverty line with the tips of your fingers
20. Listening to a man yell at you because you scuffed his new Oxfords
21. Poverty taxes
22. Praying for colds to go away
23. Overnight shifts
24. Crying when you spill food on the floor
25. Trying to break the metal band of sorrow chained around your wrist
26. Fumbling with peanut packages from gas stations
27. Running
28. Hot tears after the bank takes everything
29. Knowing where the shelter is
30. Hating all your options
31. Pacing in front of the TV when the President makes an announcement and hoping he’ll remember people like you
32. Being pitied
33. Knowing that they don’t really want to help
34. Wondering how you got here