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I started smoking 100's on thanksgiving because money is for rich people

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I started smoking 100’s on thanksgiving because money is for rich people
by emma blowgun
the thanksgiving snow crystals blow
horizontally across my scope of downtown
cedar rapids as i smoke a cigarette alone on
my deck drinking 3 dollar wine from a mason jar.
right now people are being families and
talking about schools and jobs,
and the grandparents are showing their offsprings’ offspring how much
they love them with their money, and those people are everything that
i am not.
i go inside and check the thermostat.  61 degrees.
the heat bill was not paid.
i find an almost empty jar of peanut butter and
saltine crackers.
and to think; there are people out there living lives
with kids and football and turkey and a
paycheck.
it’s a tough time;
having the desire and will to succeed but
lacking the ability.

0 thoughts on “I started smoking 100's on thanksgiving because money is for rich people”

  1. mmm. i feel this one. Seems like ‘having the desire and will to succeed but lacking the ability’ can cover a lot of shit like coming from a dysfunctional upbringing or just being dirt-poor. But yeah, i’d like to shoot those fuckers sometimes who drive thru my neighborhood in hummers and living the good life. Other times i think i’m better off being how i am eating pot-pies and living in a roach-infested house…it just gets you thinking about ‘normal’ and ‘standard of living’/’quality of life’…that sort of thing.
    Furtive lines! thanks blowgun.

  2. hmm. poverty vs. financial success, money vs. genuine success – all wrapped up in an ironic thanksgiving poem that leads straight down to the wistful frustration of the final lines. Well, desire and will, applied, leads to ability, but if it’s in the ‘wrong’ field, money keeps its distance and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it except find a way to pay the gas bill. Too bad we can’t take money out of the life equation.

  5. i think the title is one of the best lines of the poem…and there were several damn good moments (i.e. “people are being families”, “…turkey and a/ paycheck,”)that really enhance this melancholy song that won’t stop playing.

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