VOWS

In holy matrimony
poverty rapes me
to have and to hold
in rancid tent cities
cold hungry and seething
in rat tainted alleys
I human it demon
at hells bleeding door

for better for worse
an ineffable darkness
in spirals of nakedness
sickness and health
in ribbons of hopelessness
women and children
in shelters on breadlines
as poverty’s whores

for richer for poorer
to loathe and admonish
lead paint and malaria
I pledge thee my troth
before god and witness
damn poverty’s vision
forsaking all others
damn poverty’s fame

in nuptial repugnance
privation consumes me
my rodent gnawed fingers
it brands with this ring
now begging on street corners
rummaging dump sites
now wed and impoverished
I whore in its name