Lenses

Seeing life through lenses that only the poor children have

Third hand Velcro shoes and can’t even see the better halves

Cardboard tube peanut butter and boxed cheese from the federal truck

The church box blue jeans barely blue and a schoolyard that can’t give a fuck

Watching family through lenses of bitter understanding

Scraping by on second hands and the problem is expanding

No mobility but the home that’s crumbling beneath us

Another day Another fight Another bottle of liquid Jesus

One sentenced to a life of rage for crimes committed without his consent

Another left alone in ridicule but bound for self improvement

A dejected one caught between hate and lies and detachment

Pathological failure to no demise and a purchasable commitment

What will they see looking back this way through lenses made of time

The chaos that made us this way and the choices that seemed sublime

A broken road of promised light and a land that won’t exist

The fearless are all now huddling and the lies all still persist