poem
Volume 28, Number 4

Ways To Get From Here to There

Austerity measures. Bestwestern and basic provisions—eggs coffee fruit bread milk oatmeal yogurt. Christmas season at Kohl’s. Cheryl the Christian in Jewelry who prayed over me. The dorms of St. Ambrose. The Dollar Store. EBT. ERP—Emergency Resident Project. FFilms.org. Good Neighbor gas vouchers and a Grace Church giftcard. A garage apt. HRB—answer phones dump garbage file papers vacuum floors scrub toilets level up. Ironweed. Jesse’s phone calls. Keeper’s Storage. LIHEAP. Legal Aid. Loose change from the plastic bear. Little Free Library. The landlady said, someone your age should have a full-time job and a savings plan. Medicaid and MICA. Nickels and Dimes. Overflow Thrift Store. Plasma donation. The Pastor’s van. Quiddler. Red Roof Inn. Recycled magazines. Salvation Army. Split shifts. ‘This too shall pass.’ Unemployment insurance. VocRehab. Walmart. Walks with Freya—The Arboretum, Bluestem Shelter, Crabapple Shelter, Daley Park.…


—Laura Sweeney