The Good Life
by Tracy K. Smith
When some people talk about money
They speak as if it were a mysterious lover
Who went out to buy milk and never
Came back, and it makes me nostalgic
For the years I lived on coffee and bread,
Hungry all the time, walking to work on payday
Like a woman journeying for water
From a village without a well, then living
One or two nights like everyone else
On roast chicken and red wine.
Poem copyright ©2011 by Tracy K. Smith from her book of poems, LIFE ON MARS, Graywolf Press, 2011.
Most Poetry will post a poem by a poet of color, selected by our members, each day through the month of July.