On How To Be Poor

Caroline Cooper

If I tell you I just finished two

New poems

And you sigh and explain how

This isn’t making money

Can I deep fry the cry

Of a seagull

Put to bed the lowing

Foghorn and boil

One kettleful of

Phosphorescent sweater

Just to prove we are not poor?

You must suspend your disbelief

And trapeze hope.

I still have a few days on this Metrocard

And I know of at least one can of beans

That is not yet soft and diaphanous

With the spore-born promise

Of new life. Remember:

Mold matters, too.

And not everything is garbage.

Caroline Cooper is a writer, educator and journalist who teaches at City College of New York. You can find more of her writing at carolinemcooper.com