Sugar Town

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Sugar Town

After diabetes occluded
My fathers’s vision
And left him unable
To drive a car, he’d pilot
His riding lawnmower
To the reservation trading post
And buy Wonder Bread
And generic maple syrup
So he could make his slow
Suicide version of French toast.

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Child’s Bible

Once upon a time
On our reservation
The only food
In our house
Was a half-empty box
Of sugar cubes.
My sisters and I 
Rationed them
For most of a day.
They did nothing
To quell our hunger 
But we learned

There’s sweetness
Inside every little hell.

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