25 Apr Té’s corner: ‘the p’s’

Two men sit in San Francisco on different ends of the financial spectrum. (Photo by Benjamin Disinger on Unsplash)

By Donté Clark

poor people penny pinching

‘nd panhandling prayers for per diems

prefer pushin ’nd peddling, prostituting

to participate in purchasing the presence of presents to pastime.

a pathological pathway of the proud

from peasant to pedestal

it’s the pain of people

who pretentiously post photos of prized possessions;

paper, pendants, porsches ’nd pistols

the perpetual penury of particular parenting

that preludes the p-popping ’nd parking lot pimpin’

a plethora of porches from parchester to philadelphia patron pouring

parading poison to preteens while police patrollin’

these project parties are a paradigm of pagan pandemoniums

posed as positive

pretendin’ pretty preach prolific but be petty

proclaiming peace with no prosperity

protest protest protest … till popped by projectile. pause. then protest.

must be the prey of politics, performers of propaganda

pupils of predictive programming

’nd pages ’nd pages ’nd pages of paragraphs

prose papers by poets ’nd professors philosophizing ’nd pleading

against mass promotion of the piercing parables of our poverty

pain for profits? hmm, perhaps. anyhow

— just my personal perspective from the p’s

>>>Read Donté’s other work for National Poetry Month 2022: “pray for”