Sixteen Plus Change

Sometimes, we just have too much on our plates.
Like bricks falling from the sky;
we can't possibly catch them all,
nor can we dodge them either.

I tell myself, everything will work out
because no matter how bad things seems to get
they always do.

Only this time is different,
because things will not work out for everyone
and it seems, there isn't a damn thing
I can do about it.

This is particularly hard on me,
you see I have always been a doer, a fixer
not because I choose to be, just because I am.  

Maybe it's because I've had to fight for everything,
to earn every scrap. Or maybe,
it's because I know what it's like
to go without.

It's sad when you know how to be poor;
believe it or not, there is a skill to it.

The other night
my kid had a homework assignment:
three square meals
with twenty-five dollars to spend.

I did it
with sixteen plus change

and yet,
I can't fix this.