Classic Poem

So this is the way it happens
like a stalk of wheat being snapped off
like a straw nest abandoned by birds
you are stripped bare?

So this is how poverty comes
suddenly you crouch alone
in utter silence
not a laugh sounds
not a quarrel
between one cigarette and the next
you are folded down like the match stick,
bent and old

And this is how all roads fall to ruin
on the way between you and love
between you and fear
on the road...
that you had dreaded all along