The United States of America, the Land of Plenty, supposedly the greatest nation on earth... Yet, there's so much that isn't right about this country. One heart-breaking example: All the people living in the streets, the people we see but try not to see... the homeless.
How-To
by Anders Carlson-Wee
If you got hiv, say aids. If you a girl,
say you’re pregnant––nobody gonna lower
themselves to listen for the kick. People
passing fast. Splay your legs, cock a knee
funny. It’s the littlest shames they’re likely
to comprehend. Don’t say homeless, they know
you is. What they don’t know is what opens
a wallet, what stops em from counting
what they drop. If you’re young say younger.
Old say older. If you’re crippled don’t
flaunt it. Let em think they’re good enough
Christians to notice. Don’t say you pray,
say you sin. It’s about who they believe
they is. You hardly even there.
This poem sparked controversy -- of the wrong kind, in my opinion -- after it was published in The Nation last month (see The New York Times opinion piece by Grace Schulman, "The Nation Betrays a Poet — and Itself"). I decided to reprint the poem here anyway... because of what it says, about us.
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