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The Gonzalez Family
Faces on porches and windows
Have nots
Red brick house with high fences
They’re only human
Kool Aid floorboards
Seven cop cars and trick-or-treaters
Backyard of nothing—
Uncle Louie with hairy armpits and six-packs
Little brown-haired Envy was born in prison
An outlaw from her cradle
Running down the sidewalk of jumpropes
The fat middle-schooler in the Cookie Monster shirt
The tattooed men and woman on the front porch—
Did they ever think they were superstars?
Did they ever think they could escape federal prison
What did they think of us staring
Cries from our hearts like starving piano notes
We say they’re crazy
The old Redneck dies and disappears
His sick heart, his smoke sick lungs
He never did nothing to nobody
Why did he have to go?
Tin can sidewalks on a snowy night
I watched as our old house was full of squatters
A year after we’d moved away
Uncle Louie helped my shocked dad across the street
Talking like they were old friends.
How could it be
He had some good in his heart
How can such things be in the world
Where we have not
And never know anything
About anybody at all.
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Basically, the story of all our lives.