by Dee Allen
One afternoon, around
My high school days,
Grandma Lillie
Took time away from
Sewing clothes and talk show
On daytime TV to tell
My little brother and me
An important tale
About a guest
Who often came
Uninvited. Hard to predict his moves—
Being a teen-aged girl
And young mother in
The Great Depression of the 1930s,
She already knew
The guest personally,
As did her sister Vivian, her daddy
Lonnie and Lucy, her mama.
In those days, there wasn’t one person
Standing in a bread-line or begging the next
Brother for a thin dime who hadn’t met
Mister Hardtime.
If you have
No bread in the bread-box,
No fresh or frozen food in the refrigerator,
No boxed or canned food in the cupboard,
No coins filling up the Mason jar,
No dollars filling up your wallet,
No way to pay
The rent or
Clean your clothes,
Best believe
That’s when
Mister Hardtime
Comes for a house call,
Knocking on your door,
Counting on your
Despair, answering him.
Let Mister Hardtime in
And those hard times
Last longer.
May Day 2018
