Diana Darby ** "I V" ** Intravenous

Past Due

I have gotten to the point
where I have started to wonder
if they ever knew what they were doing at all.
It is a miracle to me that we had food to eat
and a roof over our heads.
There are unpaid bills,
and taxes past due from 1985,
and moldy cherry pies in the refrigerator.
There are pieces of property turning up
like orphaned children.
Ghetto children.
So unwanted
I don’t know if it is worth the money
to try to save them.
He owes $8,000 in back taxes on a property
appraised at $7,000.
He could have been sitting on oil
all this time.
Instead,
we are nursing
the dead.
The ketchup stained carpet
in the back of his Ford
was our fault,
but the truth is,
this Scorpio,
this white-haired man
with the secret life
and sweaty tennis clothes,
made his own car
stink.