The Pot Of Beans At The End Of The Rainbow

Coming home
from school on the school bus,
I ran inside the house

looking for something to eat,
and finding only
a pot of beans

with only a
handful of beans
at the bottom.

Mom was lying down
in bed
ill.

I don’t remember
when I ate
that day.

I grabbed my toy tractors
and my toy combines
and harvested the fields.

Well, they weren’t real fields-----
they were the vinyl floors
of our living room.

The patterns on the vinyl
were fields
of corn, and maize.

I worked until sunset
when dad came home
from the real fields.

God, I hope
I ate that day
because I was really hungry!