Alone I sit
On a bus
In the back row

Alone I sit on a bus in the back row holding two sleeping babies.
On a bus to homelessness we ride into the night.
In the back row, there is no one allowed but me and my two sleeping babies.

A cool wind
Whips my skin
Into consciousness
A cool wind whips my skin into consciousness.

A cool wind gives me chills as I think of the summers of my past.
It whips my skin and reminds me of box fans and midnight air; growing up on a dead end block.
Into consciousness I slip then out again as I reminisce.

He promised me that
We could be
A functional family
He promised me that we could be a functional family.

He promised me that he would care for and protect us always.
We could be more if I asked less of him, he said.
A functional family has no definition; this is something that I figured as I sat alone on a bus in the back row of a bus with my two sleeping babies on our way to homelessness.