Day 2: Poetry Works (2 poems about homelessness)

Day 2: Poetry Works

1. Hard Rock Place

Toothless smiles
yellowed teeth
tobacco stained
hands
empty
a smell
ripe. fetid
dank clothing
like laundry left too
long in the machine

Well worn
wrinkles
ridges creasing eyes
dried out
dried up
used up
taken out

they huddle at the
doorway of that
place
where entry is gained
when you have nothing
left to gain
from falling any further
upon the hard rock
bottoming out
in the land of plenty
of hard knock stories
breaking down.


2. Gotta git

Gotta go
gotta git
gotta be gitting along
goin'
down
to that place
where I can git
some of that
gotcha
that's gotten
them
lettin' go
of desperation.

Gunna. Gotta
Stop.
Gunna. Gotta
Have
one more hit
one more toke
before I quit.

Just one.
One more
Gotta git
one more hit.
Just this one
and then
I'm
gunna
gotta
quit.