By Ishmael von Heidrick-Barnes
NEXT CHRISTMAS
Next holiday season
bells will be ringing:
Tongues hammering
sunken cheeks
Hands
stripped to bones
peeling for handouts from thieves
Zinc tokens
rattling in tin cups:
Children
sleeping on streets
pulled out from under their soles
by carpetbaggers
rolled in velvet suits
promising, “Christmas past.”