Things No One Knows.

• Author: Coleman, Wanda
• Position: Poetry - Poem

overcome by the stink of mildewed wash, i have been three months behind in my rent for thirty years, my countrymen do not love me. even my lines have lines. we are getting old in a city where the old are invisible, i have nothing new to eat and barely five minutes to use the jane. and less time than that to revisit my father's grave, i've worn the same underwear for fifteen of those thirty years and some pieces longer than that writing friends is a luxury, enemies a necessity, my car was stripped and stolen months ago and i have no money with which to repair or replace it. my mentors have exiled me to the outskirts of nappy literacy, my wallet is dying of militant brain cancer, my lust for my country is frigid, the light excludes me and there is no degree for what is learned in the dark i am too clumsy to steal big. there is a boogieman in New York City who conspires against and spreads rumors about my lost lip. i am so economically crippled even my begging cup has mold sprouting in its well. my son has mistaken me for a dragon and his history teachers keep trying to hose out these flames in my mouth, i do not attend my high...