Banish Misfortune
a song, a plea, a prayer
unheard, unanswered,
at least unheeded for most
drunk on dreams of learning
or music or the cheapest
wine or whiskey to be had
working hourly at
the fast food place just off
the exit along the interstate
or keeping up the greens
at the golf course next
to the houses where some will
find work in construction
next to laborers who speak
a brand of English hardly
understood in these parts
houses for people from Michigan
or New York coming to winter
people from Florida coming to summer
no one coming to live among us
a shift of song, a guitar or fiddle
or mandolin a dream of the promise
of another land someone calls home.
