NO ESCAPE

I knew her when she was twelve
such a pretty girl
shoulda coulda been 
Homecoming Queen
later on

but she was hemmed in
on all sides
by the trash

white trash

no one hauls it away
she never knew anything
but the trash

they say pull yourself up
by your bootstraps
break the cycle
but how can you
when no one hauls
the trash away

such a pretty girl
shoulda coulda been
a model
but there was no one around
to model a different reality               

saw her a while back
overweight
overburdened
two little kids 
each fathered by a different
dude
neither of whom could be seen
on the the local radar screen 

each of them said
see you later
gonna take out the trash
and they hauled their asses
out of there

the only lie they never told her