Building a Poem

Start with a bucolic scene

Turn it a phrase

of social justice

Add a metaphor

about some trees

Hammer down

on a long slow

sloping metal roof

Sprinkled lightly

with rust and shade

Insert a picture of old friends

And a swim in the creek

from your childhood

Layer on a bittersweet look

at how poverty runs

through it all

Cap it off with a couplet

Bringing the metaphor of trees

Back to the way

Poverty cuts against

social and racial justice,

close it with a spike

and know you are done