life could be worse
your head could be
the size of a genetically enhanced
honeydew melon
and everyone might stare
at you
all the time
pretending
they weren’t looking at you
or you might be a young woman
in faded jeans
walking on payne avenue
west of east 55th
but you’re loping, you’re tilting
your knees are all crooked
and your walk goes up and down
in a haphazard disrythmic fashion
or you might be a woman
starving in a hot country
full of mosquitoes
your poor long thin breasts empty
of milk
your infant dying in your arms
life could be worse
you might be confused
about whether you were jesus
or elvis
and your most prized possession
might be hidden
in a garbage bag
in the shopping cart
you call home
life could be worse
spring might actually
never arrive
with its bright green buds
and its sporadic sunlight
life could definitely be worse
and even though love
never works out
you can usually get
one or two hugs
to get you through the day
just because you’ve been using
your faulty ideas of the future
to stay alive
and just because the first day
of the rest of your life
smells worse than a bunch of dead turkeys
lying in a field
it’s a fact
it’s a true fact
that life could be much much worse
wendy shaffer
