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Monday, May 20, 2024

SIGN OF THE TIMES

by Lisa Seidenberg


Woman found living in Family Fare sign in Midland, Michigan for almost a year.



It had a roof and a door

space for a laptop and clothes

electric kettle, plant and more

in her improvised home

above the big box store.


warmed on chill Michigan nights

wrapped in rays of a red neon sign 

while unseeing shoppers passed below 


What thoughts crossed her mind

as she lay perched behind the sign;

Is it a crime to be homeless in America?


settlers came to this land 

with only their hands

and some tools and their wits

making up the rules of wrong

and right as survival

is the primal law


not simply a need for shelter

led her to this penthouse nest. 

living for a year like a stealthy mountaineer

scaling the crest of Family Fare. 

a temporary home.

a summit of her own.



Lisa Seidenberg is a writer and filmmaker who makes documentaries and poetry films. She enjoys reading poems on the Rattlecast and other poetry performance venues.