but I’ve felt the frustration of communication
as an uninvited foreigner.
I’ve never felt lonely in a room full of extended family
sleeping on top of one another,
but I’ve slept on top of some people
I sometimes consider family
and never was closer or
more alone.
I’ve been homeless, but in retrospect,
I didn’t have to be.
Let’s call it a handicap.
Today, I only, probably, smoke
half of my cigarettes because
I give the remainder to those
more transient than I am
at the moment.
To-Go Boxes, if they’re on the menu.
I would never have thought that I'd like Country music, but
once upon a time, sharing oxygen on a cattle truck in southern Georgia
would also have been a statistical anomaly.
My first time hearing "Friends in Low Places"
with orchestration behind it was
in a bar that I used a fake ID to get into.
I already knew all the words.
And now I love the Country.
I never thought that I’d meet a conservative immigrant
until I started leaning a little more left
and asking a few more questions aloud.
I forgot once that people could be good, too.
I never, not once, went underfed growing up,
though my parents and physicians
may’ve thought otherwise at times.
I have since gone hungry too many times.
Some of those were with warrant, however.
I believe those we care for should always eat before you.
But should anyone, anywhere,
have to ever ask themselves
can of peas or can of corn for dinner tonight
from the parking lot of the Dollar General
while sifting through the last of the change
that they had honorably earned (but payday’s tomorrow!)?
The lot does have okayish lighting
so it’ll be safer to sleep in the car here.
There’s that, I guess.
I never understood why people
took their differences so seriously.
You’re damn right I appropriated that.
Because it’s fucking awesome!
I’ll do it again and always.
I hope you do the same.
It’s clear to me now that
we’re far more similar than we are,
or ever could possibly be,
different.
I never really believed in
the things that they were telling me
and, maybe, that’s why
it's hard to believe in myself.
