He Doesn't Know

“No,” again my mother says,

Sadly taking away the toy.

My brother pouts, he doesn’t know.

He is only just a little boy.

I watch, face fallen,

As he slumps down.

He thinks he has created,

My mother’s frown.

As I watch their faces,

Inside I sigh.

Why is it that we have,

Only enough to get by?

Hardly enough to get what we need.

None left over to get anything else.

Money is tight in our lives.

More tight than most anyone else.

In our city, most people are fine.

They think that they are poor.

But I know better than they.

I know they have more.

My friends can have pets,

Can go shopping, play sports.

They can go on each field trip,

Without begging for support.

Most  of my friends don’t know,

What it means to come from,

A really bad home. With fighting,

Abuse, and eyes like fresh plums.

They don’t know what it means,

To have nothing but their,

Parents. To have to go to their grammas,

Just to write on a computer.

My friends don’t understand,

My daily worries.

Will I come home,

To my step dad’s furies?

They didn’t know that I had to leave.

I packed up and took one of my brothers away.

I rode in a car for hours and hours.

To go to my dad’s to stay.

At my dad’s, things also turned rough.

My step mother did not want us,

So she took her son and kicked us,

Out of the house. She lost my trust.

At my dad’s now, money is still tight,

All of us are stressed out. We all fight.

We live every day, counting the nights.

Hoping that our finances will take flight.

“No,” again my father says,

Sadly taking away the toy.

My brother pouts, he doesn’t know.

He is only just a little boy.