Flumes Vol. 4: Issue 1, Summer 2019 | Page 25

Since The Trains Left Appalachia II

By R. Gerard

a poem about home

a poem about caring

poem about time to face

rolled up and burned out

a poem about drugs

poem about roaches can't never get rid them bugs

poem about emotions being swept under rugs

papas on the current news

incarcerated mugs

two bit thieves

forty-five hollow point slugs

powder into paper and paper into food

so my kids, they wont be hungry and they can go to school

shit sounds like a sing song,

a stupid nursery rhyme

but i miss singing stupid shit, stuck here doing time

dying ain't a living josie

and papa he ain't home

i miss when he would sing to me

he wont pick up the phone

Saw momma saw his court date--we could tell that she was scared,

She did her best to hide it, whole lot she still ain't shared

and im still too young to understand that papa really cared.

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