Caritas

To Tammay

Dab the spittle
and drag them from the rain

is it rain or the shower
waking me from
past squalor?

her odor elided by fragrance
cool and acrid

Dab the eyes
and drag them from the stain

Of dream,
Childhood, runny noses
and passing beggars
tarrying in the rain

their shivers float a cadence
cruel and tepid.