4 Children for Sale
Yesterday my neighbor sold her four children
She sat them down on their wooden front porch
Too hot for their ashy toes and their laced socks
Milton left with his frosty bottle of orange
Nehi pop and Lana was sold for two dollars
For bingo money and her dolly cost another
Inside their house my neighbor turned
The empty dinner plates upside down
And covered the baby’s crib with a wet sheet
Rae accepted a penny when they took
Her baby sister away and she left three dimes
On the porch stairs from a man who owned a barn
In the evening my neighbor took down the sale sign
And waited for her husband to return home
He drove an empty coal truck down the road
With string around his neck and another
Two lost bingo bucks after he failed to sell
himself.
Flights, Issue Fourteen, November 2024
Flight of the dragonfly 