Poverty Poetry at Paper Poetry

Paying Homage to My Great-Great-Great Grandmother

Poverty ripped apart her family but she held true to her promise

image created by author in collaboration with Bing Image Creator — source

what else am I to do
we have run out of food
I need to find us bread
lest our nightmare come true
our dear child deathly blue
in her box for a bed
I can’t let this happen
I promised you, husband
I’d take care of our child
when you went to prison
you’re not a real felon
’twas them who took our land
the blight destroyed our spuds
we could not pay the tax

© Carolyn Hastings 2024

As far as we know, my great-great-great grandmother wasn’t caught stealing bread although it’s highly likely she committed such a crime for the sake of her starving children. She was, however, arrested and convicted of the theft of two dresses which, as the story goes, she’d planned to sell so she could buy food and pay the rent.