Jun 2019
Pardon me, sir.
May I borrow
your squalor
for a photograph?
I love
the repetition
of those wrinkles in your brow.
Hold it, please.
The contrast
of your brown skin
against the white plaster chipping
is marvelous.
When I
get them developed
I'll send you a print.
They'll look great in my portfolio.
Thank you
and your wife
and your eight kids
for this pose in poverty.
Copyright 2019 Tod Howard Hawks
May I borrow
your squalor
for a photograph?
I love
the repetition
of those wrinkles in your brow.
Hold it, please.
The contrast
of your brown skin
against the white plaster chipping
is marvelous.
When I
get them developed
I'll send you a print.
They'll look great in my portfolio.
Thank you
and your wife
and your eight kids
for this pose in poverty.
Copyright 2019 Tod Howard Hawks
A graduate of Andover and Columbia College, Columbia University, Tod Howard Hawks has been a poet and a human-rights advocate his entire adult life.
