Out comes the blanket, the tea, and the munchies...

[jjhunter]

Sunday, every Sunday, let's have a community picnic. It's probably been a long week, and it's lovely to have a few minutes to sit back and relax and enjoy some good conversation in a less formal space. Feel free to bring something for the Picnic Basket - a poem you liked this week, a thought you had or something you experienced, or even something completely unrelated to poetry whatsoever that you just feel like sharing. Just take a moment to say hello, and maybe have a bite to eat; no one is going anywhere fast, and the shade promises some relief from the everyday heat. Let’s get to know each other a bit better, here under the branches of the poet’s tree.

Comments

[raze]

I wrote this a little while back, but with all of the election-year politicizing of the working class poor and some of the ignorant BS I've heard spouted lately about people supported by social programs, I think it's worth sharing today. For context: I live in the rural south and work in an area sandwiched between pockets of rural and urban poverty.

Paper Applications
Every day at work, at least half a dozen people
with about as many teeth between them
ask:
"Are y'all hiring?
and
"Where they can I get an application?"
and
"Do y'all have any paper applications? I don't have a computer."

And I kick myself for having the effrontery to ever think,
"Man, I hate my job."

I thank God they don't have a computer
and I hope they don't have televisions either.
Can you imagine what it would be like for them
to know what people say:
"The poor are poor because they don't want to work?"

[spiralsheep]

That's very effectively constructed in those three stanzas: make the people real then ask for readers to understand them. Thank you for sharing.

[untonuggan]

That is a really good poem, and very well-constructed, and it's got punch. Kudos.