Disease

The migrant mother

The leftover bread
stale and turquoise in
the corner of the room
with no air conditioning

The pocket change for a one-way
bus ride

The desperate manager counting the ways
in which more customers can buy cigarettes

The sweat

The dread of going back home
to where the air is wet and tastes of
senseless murder

The cracked steps in the concrete
to the nineteenth floor

The door with no name
just a number: 19D

The child inside
waiting for a chance to explain

The panic that sets in after
the realization that the succulent
in the corner of the room
has rotted away

And is broken

By Ryan Garesio

Biography:

Ryan Garesio is a middle school English teacher in Meriden, CT. When he’s not trying to get adolescents to understand Thoreau, he’s at home with his wife and two boys, trying to get toddlers to understand Seuss.