Being Poor

Being poor means eating on meal per day. 
Being poor means praying that your cough will go away. 
Being poor means sleeping on the floor of your family's crammed apartment. 
Being poor means paying off all your bills slowly throughout the month, praying that you will beat the clock before you power is cut off. 
And once the last bill is paid, a new month begins. 
Being poor is not being able to go on school field trips. 
Being poor means public schools are not even close to being something you can afford. 
Being poor means having other girls make fun of you because you have to wear your brother's hand-me-downs. 
Being poor means growing up thinking of college as just a dream. 
Being poor means having to grow up faster than average. 
Being poor means living paycheck to paycheck even with your three pick up jobs. 
Being poor means the jobs you get are working at fast food restaurants serving food that you can't afford. 
Or cleaning someone's vacant secondary home, when each day is a miracle that you weren't evicted from your own. 
Being poor means even in death you cannot escape the debt.