in The Depression,
so I learned frugality
as a prime value.
Clothing handed down.
Leftovers eaten.
Nothing thrown away.
Jeans patched, socks darned,
rips and tears mended.
Home remedies healed cuts,
scratches, and colds.
So, I've always worn
yellowed T-shirts with torn
underarms and toe holes
in my socks seen only
when changing at the Y.
A gift card from another
stepchild of need
changed all that,
and today I'm smiling like
a gleaming white, pre-shrunk
T-shirt right out of the pack,
new socks with toes and heels,
feeling baptized,
redeemed from that
threadbare past.
--
Eric Chiles is author of "What Was and Will Be" (Resource Publications, 2024, and available on Amazon) and the chapbook "Caught in Between" (Desert Willow Press, 2019). Besides Disturb the Universe, his poetry has appeared in Allegro, Big Windows Review, Canary, Rattle, San Pedro River Review, and elsewhere. Grandfather to a dozen grandsons, he wishes he had a granddaughter.
stepchild of need
changed all that,
and today I'm smiling like
a gleaming white, pre-shrunk
T-shirt right out of the pack,
new socks with toes and heels,
feeling baptized,
redeemed from that
threadbare past.
--
Eric Chiles is author of "What Was and Will Be" (Resource Publications, 2024, and available on Amazon) and the chapbook "Caught in Between" (Desert Willow Press, 2019). Besides Disturb the Universe, his poetry has appeared in Allegro, Big Windows Review, Canary, Rattle, San Pedro River Review, and elsewhere. Grandfather to a dozen grandsons, he wishes he had a granddaughter.