LatinosUSA

WARNING

Definition of
drug underdose, not enough
pure, dark, chocolate

~~

WRONG PLACE, WRONG TIME

Hopes and dreams
I climbed those stairs
then every last penny
went for dental repairs

Followed all the rules
kept my nose clean
yet nobody knows
the problems I’ve seen

~~

NOTHING STANDS IN THEIR WAY

Many of us have been on one of those streets
that used to merge onto a larger roadway, but was
since closed off because of too many accidents
the larger roadway, maybe earning the nickname
Dead Man’s Curve

Now that could be a metaphor for all those times
one reaches a point where we’d just like to break
through any barriers to create a shortcut, forget the
morals one was taught, and just grab that purse left
behind on the bus bench as our own

set aside the nation’s Constitution and treat all people
as if they were subjects to the crown; disavow oneself
from any limitations set by others, and open carry those
nuclear codes as a dare; use guns that were designated
to defend our nation, as tools of aggression

Cul-de-sacs, everywhere, but we know how to defeat
them: just bulldoze along any pathway, buy land, and
then rent it out for obscenely high prices; buy the ear
of Congress to impose all kinds of taxes on those with
the smallest budgets

~~

ELEGY TO UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE

After decades of being very active and mobile
as a cheerleader, and later, my wife and the mother
of our child, with no history of smoking, drinking,
or abusing drugs, this fine lady, who had voted in
favor of Universal Health Care, suffered a stroke.

Suddenly, she was disconnected from decades of
training, control, stature, confidence she had built
over the years, only to find herself still with a strong
will, but incapable of having her way. The gaping
empty hole in the framework of the person who used
to enjoy casual strolling was now saddled with using
a walker, a transfer bench, doing things seated instead
of standing, requiring help to visit the bathroom, and
to enter or exit a car. The routine act of standing on a
scale to weigh herself became a virtual impossibility.
All this served to confine her to a bed at an HMO.

There, she had a younger roommate who pleased the
staff by exerting herself to overcome her mobility
issues, and was finally dismissed to her family,
able to resume her affairs at home. Not long after
that, my wife, her mind still thinking as it used to
think, would crawl out of her hospital bed, expecting
to nonchalantly take an innocent, healthy stroll, but
her legs simply crumbled beneath her and left her
on the floor.

The HMO merely warehoused my wife, and didn’t
even offer a plan of treatment to improve her condition,
because we were on the horns of a dilemma, having
insufficient household income to support extended
professional care, while having too great an income to
be eligible for benefits extended to persons in lower
earnings brackets.

Finally, at age 75, organ failure ended her life.

~~

SPARE TIRE

World leader is killed
position given to a
donut tire in trunk