A poem about family and poverty by David Tombale: Nickels

Nickels is about the despair that can grow out of poverty and the toll that can take on a family.

Nickels

There is no beauty in the way we poor have

lived our lives, selling memories in the form

of baby blankets and strollers, old keepsakes

from our great grandmother’s days when she

was just a girl and the horizon was lit with

fire bright as the future that beckoned but

we can’t live on memories, promises won’t

make us rich, love will warm our lips but the

cool waters of poverty have come to get us,

they have reduced this love to porridge and

old stale bread, they’ve reduced those bright

eyes to dull marbles that glimmer with hunger

and the last shreds of pride so here’s my father’s

watch, my lover’s dress, my brother’s name,

take them all and give me payment in dimes

and quarters, nickels and pounds.