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once when i was a nobody
by Charlie Morganonce when i was a nobody, teenager
didnt count. grown-ups ruled the race
no matter how much sense, how many
teeth had been swallowed from fights
with the IRS trying to bite the hand
that took food from their mouths.
this is why teenagers didnt count;
we couldnt count things that mattered,
only how many pimples were new,
how many frays in these hand-me-down levis,
how many times all us boys kissed karen
in our walking sleepy dreams of love.
still, poor and all, i was headed forward
to my destiny that had no hands to shake,
no happy face to receive my wanting smile.
only sneers, snides and an elusive gait
that seemed to outdistance me like an eland
ridding the slow lioness of her evening meal.
when i did get tall enough to see over the fence
they were gone, my future, my mama at home,
daddy riding the ribbons of highways across
the less-than-great nation who didnt take
its poor, its young or feeble anywhere
but to their cardboard propped-up dreams.
02/01/2007 Posted on 02/01/2007
Copyright © 2026 Charlie Morgan
| Member Comments on this Poem |
| Posted by Kristina Woodhill on 02/01/07 at 10:15 PM Wow, the ending feels abrupt and I am standing at attention. The last line really hits home about the poor and the homeless and their plight. |
| Posted by Gregory O'Neill on 02/01/07 at 11:06 PM No kidding, this is so right on, Chaz. One day when I was about 16, I was washing the family car in anticipation of going on a date that evening. My father came out of the house to observe what I was doing. He criticized me to the extent that I felt as if I was doing nothing right. Finally I said something like, "Dad, get off my case. Don't you understand this is the first time I have ever been a teenager?" He looked at me and said, "Pal, don't you know this is the first time I have ever been a father?" I grew wiser that day because I realized we all are learning together within a family. We cannot expect our parents to be perfect any more than we can expect ourselves to be all that we hoped to be. Excellent poetry. Thanks. |
| Posted by Genevieve Sturrock on 02/02/07 at 01:20 PM It has taken me 20 years to realize that I am not stupid and that I do count...makes me ultra cautious as a parent of soon-to-be teens. Thanks for the reminder! |
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