An Urban Autumn Tale

An Urban Autumn Tale

Christmas wishes voiced in young October
generate a mournful sigh of noise
from a harried, working single mother
who knows she can’t afford the latest toys

as she cleans the mealtime’s meager leavings,
both her daughters giggling away,
she wipes her eyes as well as supper dishes
and in her troubled soul begins to pray

a husband, locked away for dealing cocaine,
is not much help in covering the rent
and holding down two jobs to pay expenses
she herself, is nearly always spent

she wants to spend more time with both her children,
but somehow never seems to get the chance
and she aches within her own young body
for the lack of something called romance

welfare checks are not her way of coping
she’d rather starve than suffer their disdain
her parents raised her to be independent
and so she grits her teeth and eats the pain

only God is privy to her troubles
for she does not care to socialize
with others who are victims of a system
that only sees with prejudicial eyes

and though her hopes for Christmas are but wishes,
still she smiles and gives her girls a squeeze
tomorrow she will hock her wedding jewelry
so next week won’t find them on their knees

C. Lon R. Bruso