by Maxine Kumin
If Lonnie Scutz comes back, he’s guaranteed
free room and board in the State’s crowbar hotel.
His girlfriend Grace, a toddler at her heels
and in her arms a grubby ten-month jewel,
looks to be pregnant again, but not his seed.
It’s rumored this one was sired by his dad.
Towheads with skyblue eyes, they’ll go to school
now and then, struggle to learn to read
and write, forget to carry when they add,
be mocked, kept back or made to play the fool
and soon enough drop out Their nimble code,
hit first or get hit, supplants the Golden Rule.
It all works out the way we knew it would.
They’ll come to no good end, the Scutzes’ kids.
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