Canzoniere

Barbara Jean
is the queen
of the seventh floor
of public housing unit fourteen.

Her husband is a poet
but no one knows it.
He wouldn't let her expose it.
He was a business man, you know?
Where any shred of sensitivity
meant scrutiny and liability.
He wrote sonnets on napkins
and prose on scraps
of graph paper
and threw them in the shredder.

And her son yells at her
a 42-year-old drop out.
Who stays without
welcome.
She had to smuggle him
into her public situations.
Stayed for two weeks,
then took a two day vacation.
She hated sending him to the but
she had to.
'Cause if the landlord ever found out,
he'd kick her ass out too.
So far, they haven't noticed.
But it's just a matter of time,
and she knows it.
And Barbara Jean
will be back on the streets
quoting poetry
to strangers she meets.
Who won't look her in the eye
at the bus stop...