Mid-interview, she starts to well up.
The social workers both scrounge for Kleenex
and she blurts, last week I had a house,
a nice house, a two-family, now my daughter
looks into this room, says Mommy, we can’t
live here, what’s a shelter, where’s our home?
I used to work in a real estate office.
I was sure I could manage…
Our reassurances fall softly at her feet
where the eight-month-old twins
lie dreaming, dreaming in their carseats.
Robbie Gamble is a nurse practitioner working with homeless families and individuals in the greater Boston area. He is presently working on an MFA in poetry at Lesley University. He has been published courtesy of Main Street Rag, Wilderness House Literary Review, Ibbetson Street and Modern Haiku.
A Quiet Courage 