Prisoners of Poverty

2.8 million people walked the streets of Chicago today,

but while they were criss-crossing across those cracks in the concrete

not one of them noticed that they were passing through a prison

A prison where inmates of income do time in the dungeons of cardboard castles

Where the cafeteria is a trash can and the bathroom is a brick wall

Where the only occupation is an outstretched hand held up by the hinges of hunger

and a fleeting faith in humanity

Where the visiting room is divided by a one way mirror:

Made of excuses and explanations, it enables everyone to ignore the incarcerations

So a teen can sit seeking food front and center on the sidewalk,

while the human herd, unable to hear, hurries past him like livestock.

Too focused on our future at a suitable cubicle

to see that a donation to a juvenile is usually doable.

We’ll leave the heavy lifting up to legislation

in hopes that our nation

will stop its endless arming for wars

and start fighting the battle to bring its homeless indoors.

Instead of spending money making missiles long range,

I think it makes more sense, to use our dollars for change.

But, until the day we stop building bullet holes in our democracy

for citizens to fall through

Until that day,

The change will have to be made by you.