A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog,
when you are just as hungry as the dog.—Jack London
when you are just as hungry as the dog.—Jack London
You take your tins of sardines in water,
Your cans of hominy and your expired
Salad dressing that you think we ought to
Be thanking you for, kneeling on our tired
Poverty striken knees in gratitude
For; slavishly happy to get a cut
Price store-brand soup mix pack--take the food
You would never want to eat yourself but
You think is fine to 'donate to the poor';
Take your sanctimony and your jars of
Charity tidbits in juice--take all your
Cheap fillers--load them back in your One Love
And your PETA bumper stickered Prius
Then shove them up where the sun don't see us.
Juleigh Howard Hobson is a formalist poet, essayist and short fiction writer. Former finalist for The Morton Marr Prize, and winner of the ANZAC Day Award (Australia), she has had poems nominated for both the Pushcart and the Best of the Net Award. Her poetry has appeared or shall appear in Able Muse, Mobius, The Lyric, The Raintown Review, Candelabrum, Soundzine, The Barefoot Muse, Hip Mama Magazine, Poem Revised (Marion Street Press), Return of The Raven (HorrorBound) and scores of other venues. She lives in the Pacific North West with three children, an artist/editor husband and 6 backyard chickens.
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