Gutter Knees Poem by Smack Thompson

I danced crazy dances on a dumpster
with a crazy girl with
infected crusty/bleeding scabs on

her knees and I think
I know how they -

got there.

She's one of those twisted mad/junkie types
crashing into life like automatic weaponry
raining down from helicopters exploding people's heads
like pumpkins

She moves fast and doesn't give a damn about what happens
next.

Back to the scabs...She can't go see a doctor, where the hell would she go?

I was thinking I'd take some change and buy
some peroxide and pour them on her knees -
but I don't think she'd let me /and it might be too late
for that
That angry reddish streak coming up from one of them
performing some kind of hostile takeover on her leg
she's running from her problems but she ain't gonna
get far if they have to amputate.

I tried not to retch and throw up bile
on her thinking about it (haven't ate yet)
because I don't think it's her fault
we all gotta make a living somehow/
just some of us are dying faster than others
while they do it.

I hate the way this society treats women.