My first donation to charity

Dropped a coin into a beggars bowl

Left to survive on another man’s scrap

A man fated to die later that evening

A predicament that had everything to do with the absence of money

And loss of dignity

Poverty, easy to talk about but hard to live with

Poverty, a burden that should not be left in the hands of an individual

With no resources or knowledge to escape it

But in the hands of the systems that led the individual to it

A burden if placed only on the individual

Allows those of us who make it

Believe the individual deserves poverty

And they don’t

An attractive woman with strands of grey hair

Picked out by the dreaded ‘C’ disease

Makes payment towards its demise

But with prices out of reach for everyone but the wealthy

She prepares to depart with a happy yet sad appearance

With thoughts of how medication that has been in existence for over 20 years

Increases in price instead of decreasing

With no one to blame but greed

A little girl

Walks through the streets begging for scraps of food

With no protection from harm and no tears left to cry

Three days she has not eaten

But goes on for the sake of her stomach

Yet a woman flies out of the country

To sleep in a five start hotel

With all the protection the world has to offer

To lead yet another fight against poverty

With no one to blame but greed

An underprivileged child

With no destination in mind but a need to keep moving

Struggles for a better tomorrow

To end this circle of endless greed

But when she finally gets that upper hand

Her desire for more manifests

Ignoring the flip of coin that got her into that privileged position

And suddenly what she once termed as wrong becomes justified

With the satisfaction of a need comes greed

a desire for more than what is considered enough

and a life devoid of compassion

an endless cycle of greed

In rage i voiced out words i wished i could take back

Performed actions i ought to have apologized for

All because i cared too much

In a world too proud and selfish to notice the pain behind my rage

So I chose not to share my thoughts and feelings

And became a walking lunatic

With a constant need to talk

A constant need to cry

And a constant need to laugh

All at the same time

My veil had been uncovered

And my darkest side set out to play

With my mind igniting the best forms of insanity that existed in me

Insanity became inevitable in my life

A broken woman’s tale

He longed for someone he could not have

Looked for answers he could not find

Disregarded the tell-tale screams of the obvious

Each step leading him into a bottomless pit called forever

Without the one he loved

His body felt like a waiting lodge

Hoping one day the one he loved would come back

Hoping just maybe the one he loved would talk back

If he picked the phone and called

But each step led him into a bottomless pit called forever

Without the one he loved

The tale of the bereaved

I am afraid of death

It undervalues the definition of what a person is

Until we all become the same

The beloved, the body, the dead man, the non existent

But my biggest fear at this moment in time

Is the death of a loved one

It creates a different kind of time

A broken clock that can’t be reset

Hanging on my wall wrong all the time

What happens when the one I love

Stops breathing

Recurrent cries and pain with a heart that never lets go

Constant reminders of what I had and could have had

Thinking about what awaits me

My heart beats

For fear of one day ending up in that bottomless pit called forever

Without the one I love