I slip into anonymity.

It fits me like a glove.

Like a drop in the bucket,

I merge into love on the broad white avenues of Lubbock Texas.

No one cares what sort of shoes I wear,

Or if I’ve bothered to do my hair,

In this, the true north,

The true Windy City.

And 49 cents is all you need to eat around here.

Can Chicago offer as much?

It’ll buy you two bananas at the grocery store.

They don’t sell beer.

They could now.

It’s not a dry county as it was before,

But they don’t want to,

And you don’t really need it, anyway, do you?

They took the time to mix something pretty up

Into the mud they poured the sidewalk from

To make it shine,

Just like the city fathers did down in Abilene.

The curbs that line the public library there

Sparkle like a beacon to the poor

Who farm in the small communities that dot the countryside.

Come and learn!

Learn, I know not what,

When all I’ve ever needed to know

From living on the common street,

Is what the grocery stores have got

That anyone can buy and eat

For 49 cents.

-jenn