Hard Labor

After the Redistribution we continued 

to panhandle no longer 

because we needed to 

but because it felt like the right 

thing to do I mean other people

were still doing their jobs

and ours were not obsolete

or getting any easier I mean

you try looking strangers in the 

I mean day in and day out and

telling them there but for the grace 

of god goes shops and offices

and mortgages and insurance plans

as if their lives couldn’t up-end

and empty out just like so

with our coffee cup and signs

bored dogs and rehearsed lines

doing our best to remind

every passerby of how

things used to be 

and how quickly they could change

if they wanted to