JIM TRAINER'S POEM OF THE WEEK, IN THE CITY-Jim Trainer's News & Public Affairs Program On KOOP Radio In 2024

BOXING DAY for Rob Kaniuk

today when I prayed
I blessed no one
it was hard getting down
hard getting back up
from my knees
I been working since 12 that’s
32 years every day a fight
some gigs were easy but they took your mind
others took your body and your mind
I took salt baths and wrote and
didn’t write or bathe at all and I drank
that perfect, crippling foil–alcohol
and swirled in the hopelessness and the
myriad of trial and damage that comes with that life
I washed dishes, mowed lawns, painted houses
it was insisted
I was lucky to do so
my father was an oil man and they
moved him from city to city
because of his attitude
my attitude is my father’s and I don’t feel lucky
or beaten though almost
on some days, weeks, months and seasons
on off days I turn off the phone
type these words for us:
me and my father and every man and woman
who’s survival is weaponized against him
whose health and wellbeing has to be negotiated
though honestly most days I don’t type at all
but lie there not sleeping
letting the bad humors of battle wash over me
get up when it’s time
to go back to work and I pray
though today when I prayed
I blessed no one.

IN THE CITY is a monthly News and Public Affairs program attesting that if the voice of the people on the street ain’t the truth, it’ll do until the truth gets here. 1st Mondays on KOOP Radio 91.7FM HD1 HD3 Hornsby and on the world wide web at koop.org.

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