Basic Bitch
Walking into work
I heave a sigh
“What’s up with you?”
My manager inquires
“Just behind on some bills,”
I respond after my apron is tied.
-
My manager scoffs and laughs quietly,
“What bills do you have?”
He asks condescendingly.
-
I am silent for a moment,
But cannot help myself.
“I’ve got car insurance, rent and my phone, well,
it may shut off if I don’t pay by tomorrow,
But finals are this week and I could only work
A couple of days,
so I’m going to be
a bit short.”
-
It is his turn to fall silent
Yet who can blame him
A girl like me
Can’t possibly know
What it’s like to struggle
And feel alone.
-
A cop pulls me over
For using my cell phone
I shouldn’t have been talking
But my mother needed eggs and flour.
-
My car is broken down
It doesn’t look nice
I’m asking for a warning
“Please just this once”
-
He shakes his head and looks at me
In the midst of desperation
“Your daddy will pay for it,”
And there’s no need for contemplation.
-
I don’t have the heart
To tell him through my tears
I haven’t seen my dad in a while,
In a month it will be fourteen years.
-
But who can blame him,
Cause I don’t fit the image
Of someone who struggles
With anything but handbags and pretty colors.
-
Senior year of high school
Our teacher assigned
College entrance essays
So we could practice
And be taught the design.
-
I spoke up and said
I’d like to write
About a time in my life
That’s a bit tough to discuss.
-
He looked at me with questioning eyes
“What was so tough for you?”
He asked, challenging my lie.
The whole class stared
I looked him dead in the eye.
-
“My mother and I
Lived in a homeless shelter
For a couple of months
When I was five.”
-
It took him a second
To rebound
He apologized later
But what I learned that day
Was pretty profound.
-
But who could blame him
For assuming my struggles
Amounted above watching
My favorite TV couple
Break and crumble.
For some reason, I could not get the stanzas to break, so I placed a divider between each one instead. Hope you enjoyed!
