Poem Seven - 30/30 - 4/2009

When You Left


When you went away and left me the first time
I wished I was twenty instead of ten so I could go find you
The second time you left I couldn't understand how
You'd go away without even being told to

I wished I was twenty instead of ten so I could go find you
But I was afraid to pass by the bars you lived in then
You'd go away without even being told to
Mom said you love bars more than being home

But I was afraid to pass by the bars you lived in then
I'd see men stretched out on the sidewalk as if they'd died
Mom said you loved bars more than being home
She was always angry and backhanding someone who'd cry

I'd see men stretched out on the sidewalk as if they'd died
The kind of guys who worked at the steel mills where you did
Mom was always angry and backhanding someone who'd cry
Then I would worry that one of us was going to bleed

The kind of guys who worked at the steel mills where you did
Who drank all the money or spent it on loose women
I'd worry that one of us kids was going to bleed
When you went away and left us with her



© Odilia Galvàn Rodríguez