Faces on porches and windows

Have nots

Red brick house with high fences

They’re only human

Kool Aid floorboards

Seven cop cars and trick-or-treaters

Backyard of nothing—

Uncle Louie with hairy armpits and six-packs

Little brown-haired Envy was born in prison

An outlaw from her cradle

Running down the sidewalk of jumpropes

The fat middle-schooler in the Cookie Monster shirt

The tattooed men and woman on the front porch—

Did they ever think they were superstars?

Did they ever think they could escape federal prison

What did they think of us staring

Cries from our hearts like starving piano notes

We say they’re crazy

The old Redneck dies and disappears

His sick heart, his smoke sick lungs

He never did nothing to nobody

Why did he have to go?

Tin can sidewalks on a snowy night

I watched as our old house was full of squatters

A year after we’d moved away

Uncle Louie helped my shocked dad across the street

Talking like they were old friends.

How could it be

He had some good in his heart

How can such things be in the world

Where we have not

And never know anything

About anybody at all.