Lugged the box for the Y-Teens' canned food drive out
Of my classroom last night
To the storage room where they'll be collected
Some in my homeroom brought cans, not many
More need the cans
The Y-Teens will distribute them
Every little bit helps

This morning I was angry
Getting dressed in front of a news story on TV
Citizens and shelter managers and reporters
Disrespecting panhandlers, saying
Not to give them money
Painting them with brushes of alcohol and cigarettes
Like you wouldn't drink and smoke with similar stressors

Tonight my husband and daughter remembered
The can drives at their own schools
We need a can each, he said
I glared at him
Went to the crowded pantry
Passed out corn, beans, oranges, pumpkin, rice, soup
Can by can

The crowded pantry haunts me
The snotty anti-panhandlers
What kind of stewards are we?
There will never be enough goodness in me
To exonerate all this.