‘The Squeeze’
You can’t run the air conditioner because it costs too much money and the sun is turning into tar, hot and black, burnt smell on the roof, and the cactus and the agave outside have a little blue in the green that reminds you of a cold swimming pool, but you can’t get at it. You are one of those lemons that has had the juice squeezed out of it and then had the pieces of it thrown to the trash on the street, you are almost ready to faint and you open the refrigerator door, you can’t pay for the food, medicine, and the rent at the same time and tonight you can’t open the window because you are afraid, and tomorrow won’t be any better than today, and the newspapers have stories about gentrification and the hard times people are having just like you. Austin poet Benjamin Nash has had poems accepted by Blueline Red River Review among other publications. Send poems (40-line limit) to poetry editor Jim LaVilla-Havelin, San Antonio Express-News, P.O. Box 2171, San Antonio, TX 78297-2171.