Gutter Grown Kids

"You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed."
    --The Little Prince, Chapter 21

we're the gutter grown kids
grit in our smiles freckled
with loose change collections
tracing circles in newspaper ashes
like we knew what we made

we're the oil slick sisters
memorizing scripture: stay down
and don't look up
steal our shoes two sizes big
trip wires, cut the change, grab the bags

we're the moon milked children
suckling off street corners
sweepers since sin spooned out our eyes
strung bells on our ankles

we're the well water witches
soot faced, engine oiled
gasoline currency and
coal a black magic all its own

we’re the railroad track babes
nomadic, boxcar bound
the whistle pulls us in
tracks clack, hack black smoke
tunnel vision for the western sun