I was surfing the web for a quote or poem and came across this little gem. When I was done reading it I pondered how closely it relates to current society's thinking. A world full of people, who think they are entitled to everything for nothing.
Momma Welfare Roll by Maya Angelou
Momma Welfare Roll by Maya Angelou
Her arms semaphore fat triangles,
Pudgy HANDS bunched on layered hips
Where bones idle under years of fatback
And lima beans.
Her jowls shiver in accusation
Of crimes cliched by Repetition.
Her children, strangers
To childhood's TOYS, play
Best the games of darkened doorways,
Rooftop tag, and know the slick feel of
Other people's property.
Too fat to whore,
Too mad to work,
Searches her dreams for the
Lucky sign and walks bare-handed
Into a den of bureaucrats for her portion.
'They don't give me welfare.
I take it.'
Pudgy HANDS bunched on layered hips
Where bones idle under years of fatback
And lima beans.
Her jowls shiver in accusation
Of crimes cliched by Repetition.
Her children, strangers
To childhood's TOYS, play
Best the games of darkened doorways,
Rooftop tag, and know the slick feel of
Other people's property.
Too fat to whore,
Too mad to work,
Searches her dreams for the
Lucky sign and walks bare-handed
Into a den of bureaucrats for her portion.
'They don't give me welfare.
I take it.'
2 comments:
Hah, that's awesome and very accurate!
EL:
Maya's definitely got her finger on the pulse of inner-urban America...and she MUST have spent some time with a lot of my "neighbors"...
marvelous post!
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