Living Together

 
Did we really live in that apartment,
so cold in winter,
we walked around with blankets
draped around our shoulders
like cloaks.

And the furniture...
what wasn't bought at thrift sales
was a carton or a crate.

We didn't even have a shower,
washed our hair in the sink
those days when the hot was working.

A lumpy mattress,
tiny black and white TV,
meals that dog food would have shamed.

But all that worried you
was unplanned pregnancy.

Unplanned adversity
was bright and bubbly
as a child to us.