Poor Folks

The poor are just like you,
Except that
On a good day,
They are poor but surviving,
Though still worrying,
More than you can imagine,
About the bad day
When they might not.

So they go out and buy
This very expensive insurance
Against that day:

Letting distant relative board in her house for free;
Slipping the teacher $20 not to report her kid helping skipping classes to deliver meals;
Working for a pimp whose father was her mother pimp;
Refusing jobs that don't come through the preacher who takes his cut but doesn't forget;

Properly examined,
Poverty is a success
In a struggle against destitution.