by Deb Freedman
Our clients are gracious even though all we offer won’t get them through July.
Handicapped stickers hang on their cars’ rearview mirrors;
backseats are strewn with car seats, crumbs, and walkers.
They show us pictures of grandchildren or kittens.
Sometimes, they walk across the bridge.
Sometimes, they tell us they’re hungry.
Two skinny little boys ask if we have any books for them.
When my friend says they can help themselves to as many as they want,
they get so excited, they rock their car.
The older brother tells his little brother to take 4 only books.
The older boy sees one about wolves and growls at me, grinning with a wiggly tooth.
They chorus thank you as their dad drives away.
Anna walks over without her curly, gray-haired dog today.
She says Sadie has a lump on her belly and she’s worried.
The vet will see her sweet baby on the 14th.
She doesn’t know what she’ll do if it’s serious.
The blonde school bus driver, the size of a 5th grader, waves
her passport at me.
She takes it everywhere.
Born here, she is afraid to go to the store.
Now is before the “Big Beautiful Bill” passes.
Deb Freedman's poetry has been published in The New Verse News, US I/ DVP Poets Worksheets and most recently, Patterson Literary Review. The Food Center, its clients and volunteers, take up a large shelf in her heart.
