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.