by Stacey Torres

Created on: April 25, 2010   Last Updated: April 28, 2010

I stand in line

While dignity waits out in the car,

Pride keeps cutting in front of me,

Pushing me farther back

And self worth no longer returns my calls.

With papers in hand

My life story, tucked inside a manila envelope

Revealing the shame and anger and anxiety

Of having nothing more to show for

56 years of a life

Boiled down to debt after debt and

The absurdity that I'm too old to work at what

I had mastered and crafted and can dance

Rings and rings and rings around

Any upstart

Just now crawling out of an institution

Of higher learning

Still wearing a diaper.

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