clcouch123

Normal Life

 

I wake up early because I’m stressed

It’s dark, and I can’t tell if it’s

Because the power still is off

 

I want coffee

We are in a land of coffee, but it’s

Been hard to keep at hand

Bread?—sometimes what we can make,

When we find ingredients

The children might have school today

We never know

 

Dios mío, I don’t know if we’ll find toilet

Paper—toilet paper!—today

My phone sometimes works;

I’d like to find out how the rest of the

Family is doing

Though if poorly, what can I

Do for them?

 

I might get some news, but it will be all

Bad

And, you know, I want it to be bad

I don’t want to hear how celebrities are

Living, when we live perilously

Least of all, I don’t want to know of politicians’

Lives: they have failed us,

 

And until they live like us

I don’t want to know about them

We used to be rich with oil and coffee

Cacao, plátanos, other

Things

The children learn in school

Angel Falls

I’ve never been

 

Crops, decent houses, and safe cities

Even trying to live outside

Shadows of the carteles

 

I’m almost sorry I remember all

The good things

But I would go mad without

The hope that something good

Will return or something new will happen

 

Help from outside is something

We can’t always

Trust

But today I do not care

I want my family to be safe

I want to have food, the plainest kind

And plenty of it

Too much would be a blessing

I want to go to sleep tonight without

Fear from all there is

To fear

 

I want to know that in the morning

We can have hot water

I can turn on the lights,

The microwave, the computer, or the TV

If I want to

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Jonathan Mendez on Unsplash

Caracas