Food Stamp Poem

I got laid off for lack of work.

I got on unemployment and drew food stamps.

We had two kids and Brenda was at home nursing Balder

and minding Owen. I went to Tallahassee to apply for a job.

On the way home, I stopped at the IGA in Bristol to buy

a can of Vienna sausages, a jar of yellow mustard, and a loaf of white bread.

I had on a white short-sleeve shirt and a necktie. The cashier asked me for

my food stamp ID card and a picture ID to humiliate me. I said,

“I’m looking for a job, lady. There ain’t none. It’s these

God damn Republicans and Fundamentalist Christians.”