Bearing the Weight of the Poor

 

I carry them with me always

Visions of their smiles haunt me

Blackness marks the sickness that consumes their flesh,

their ears, their nose their fingers, their legs

I saw them at Nago

The stench, the smile, the humanity being ate alive

  

I carry them with me always

I weep because they are treated as less than animals

Clawing at the refuse of the city

with a sharp hooked rod

 a hungry human being eats food from the smoldering dump

a child who will never learn to read

a child enduring boils and flies

  

I carry him with me always

I never gave him enough

a man with a board on coasters using his gloved hands to push his self along

reaching up he asks for a coin

looking down I empty my pocket

 

 I carry her with me always

She could have been a girl in my High School

Her youth and beauty fade each year

She remembers her children shot in a clash between warring factions

Her son by an unknown wretch holds her hand

She is for sale nightly

a numbered tag replaces her name

  

I carry them with me always

Their fragile lives bring tears to my eyes

Little children with their hands held out

Playing with tires

Feet without shoes

Laughing at their growling stomach

 

I carry them with me always

I see the emptiness in their souls

A cupped hand, a swelled pocket, floating eyes

With sleight of hand they sniff quickly

Glue eats their brains

Stunts their growth

They chose to escape an uninhabitable world

  

I carry her with me always

She haunts my dreams

Unkempt hair, a tattered dress,

an exhausted child nursing at her dry breast

My alms could not bring her smile

  

I carry them all and many more

They have become a part of my soul

They are the reason I speak

They are the reason I don’t like your hiding place called church