Money's Tight and We're All in Need

Just outside Pittsburgh. The Steel City.

An industrial America-

  a blue collar America.

A blue collar America that survives on 

  $1000 every 2 weeks

  power company grace periods

  and t.v. dinners.

Winters are rough-

  food banks are stretched thin 

  and parents have to keep their kids warm.

Four kids stand around a fire they started

  because there's nothing else here.

Empty lots with dead grass,

a two storey house slowly caving in on itself.

Grocery shopping getting done at the Dollar Store

  (in downtown Corey).

A single mother who ony has a box of instant potatoes for her child.

Two best friends, thirteen years old,

  walk around at midnight.

  Everything they're wearing came from a thrift store or a church.

Times will be easy again. One day. Soon.