Vanishing Act
I don’t see a bunch of happy kids
Doing kid things outside like we did
Back when we were kids
Running around without
Fear of the boogeymen
Luring us into their cars
When we popped wheelies on our Stingray bikes
When we wrestled on the front lawn ‘til sundown
When we played baseball at the park
When our exuberant laughter
Sliced the air like a blade--
Innocent sounds of happiness
But not here
On these quiet
Narrow asphalt streets
No hide and seek
No trick or treat
In this mobile-home village
Squeezed together
Like canned sardines
There’s nowhere
For them to play
No trees to climb
No yards in front
No slides or swings
Or merry-go-round things
They stay indoors
Where they feel safe
A sign of the times
A sign of this place
The only time I see a bunch
Of kids outdoors is
When they walk out of
Their trailers and hurry
Down the streets to
Board the school buses
At the crack of dawn
And later on when
They come home
To vanish again.
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| Imagine |
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Roughing It
I met ol’ Dan not long
After moving here
A big blonde itinerant
Who all these years
Has lived his solitary
Nowhere-man life
In a beat-up Ford van
In a field in the dark
By the big oleanders
Next to where the truckers
Sometimes park overnight
He’s held a day job
Without benefits
For years holding out
A cardboard sign
OUT OF WORK--PLEASE HELP
With a can for donations
Flopped like a sack of
Potatoes on a bucket
Turning red like a tomato
About to explode
Under the searing summer sun
At the off-ramps
I ran into Dan
At the Quick Stop
The other day
Time
And a rough life
Have chiseled his face
Looks twice his age
Smelly, filthy
Tore up from the floor up
Eyes tethered to the earth
One foot in the grave
He’s not the only Dan out here.
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| Anxious |
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I will be sharing from Manny's new book in this way
Talking about what I've read...
The Vanishing Act
came about as a result of the white man
who traded beads for much in return
who killed our indigenous people
until they live not where they wish
but in a location determined by the white man
My heart bleeds for the people who lived
after the white man devastated their lives...
We have left many
Roughing It
Trying to survive without support
of any significance from those white men
who first stole from them
brought violence into their lives
strife of seeing death all around
while lands were settled by those
who claimed they had discovered
and thus owned
land that had been lived upon for generation
after generation thankful to their ancestors
Now forced to beg or be afraid, still,
of that white man who has become even
more violent to all those who are
also God's children
Manny is my adopted brother, trying to make it
alone and separated from the world
Please check out his books to the right
and support him in any way you can
His artistic skills are, as can be seen, extraordinary
"What you do unto the these of these..."
God Bless
Gabby
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