HOMELESS, BUT NOT MOTHERLESS
19
two exquisite plenipotentiaries
two corpulent asses
though one bourgeois stinks plenty too-
5.
Mother and I quit the city
and now we walk in the grass
strewn with piles of rags and glass
of broken bottles
poor people dip for scraps of food
licking their chapped lips, scratching their chests
On the wide road cleaving the grass
get the laft
Boys
business m~n drive by in fast procession
their eyes sewn up in livid bags
their cars new, humming with sale integrity
poor people stop to gaze with cold eyes
afterwards they stretch out in the grass
turning their backs on the shiny limousines
Mother quickens her pace and
I snuling easily keep up with her
It is time to leave off the beaten path
the old path-
Clearly I say
as mother moves besides me like a horse ill clover
it is time it is time-
not backward and downward she laughs li,ke a cannon shot
hut forward and upward I roar.
PHILIP RAHV
