My Friend Mike Lost His House in Foreclosure
because he owed money to the bank and for taxes
and because he didn't open all those envelopes and neither did his wife
and because even though they both work they don't make enough money
because minimum wage jobs aren't enough to live and because
upstate New York can be a hard place and the woman
from Saugerties bought his house in foreclosure to flip it
because she wants more money and because Mike doesn't feel adequate to fight
the system even though we've tried to help and because he grew up poor
and thinks he has to be poor forever his mother came from Poland she cleaned
houses in Albany Mike went to work in Freihoffers Bakery over 30
years ago and because he has lyme disease now and two children and he
doesn't want to talk about any of this although it's all he thinks about all day long
he's been a worrier since he was a little boy now he's in his fifties and he
wonders is there any way out and when I tell him there is he doesn't believe me.