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I'm a Christian but . . .

Text of Poem

It gets pretty thick when
you’re supposed to eat crow every morning
because some nitpicker wants to sell you
a deal about my brother’s keeper for
a nice fat donation out of your pocket.
I say, let the bastards starve if they
won’t work for a living, nobody helped us,
did they? Just because you pay
your taxes and keep your house
painted and lawn mowed, they think you’ve
got it made. But who knows what’ll happen
to you tomorrow? You’re supposed to dig
into the old sack for a few dollars here
and a few there because some guinea
on the other side of the world lost
his G-string in an earthquake.
Look at my grocery bill,
came in the mail today,
do you blame me for
hollering?

First Line
It gets pretty thick when
Original Pub Location
Original Publication Date
2001
Original Citation
The Complete Poems of James Hearst. Ed. Scott Cawelti. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2001. 496.
Complete Poems
496
Word Count
129
Poetic Form
open
Themes