Blessin’ Street by Cheryl Duggan Everyone shared the main floor kitchen (leaving crumbs behind so the wee mice could eat) Everyone had a pot to piss in (the urine overpowering the many stinky feet) Everyone heard when the drunk was dissin’ (too afraid to talk back cuz we would get beat) Everyone knew what they were missin’ [...]
Living by your Inner Light – 27th Verse A knower of the truth travels without leaving a trace, speaks without causing harm, gives without keeping an account. the door he shuts, though having no lock, cannot be opened. The knot he ties, though using no cord, cannot be undone. Be wise and help al [...]
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Crock of Beans by Shane R. Allison Growing up the middle child in a family of five and raised by a mother on welfare presented a lot of challenges. Most of those challenges I remember as being met face on by my mother and my siblings. Many of those challenges have molded my life and [...]
Hop on a thirteen minute, virtual subway ride through the life of an Ontario foster child at the following link.
Here is a poem my mother wrote after loosing myself and my brother to foster care. She suffered from depression and alcoholism at the time of our apprehension. (1972)
The issue of conditions being imposed on the use of federal Social Transfer Payments was raised in Chapter 1 of the 2008 Federal Auditor General’s Report. The “Main Points” section of the report states the following;
Poor People Need Pets Too! by Cheryl Smith I have not moved far from this photo and yet it is a lifetime away. Six years ago. A new relationship. He didn’t want cats. I did. Two years later, he relented, and Cleo chose us. She introduced herself to us and she was the only kitten [...]
POOR PEOPLE DON’T VOTE by Cathleen Watson-White All our representatives, in every level of government, live in comfortable houses and have enough to eat. They are not members of the underclass, and neither are their friends. That is why they have very little interest in helping the poor. There is another reason: there is nothing [...]
Gary 17 is a poet, journalist, songwriter, musician, emcee, open stage host, show producer and promoter, host of the Open Season internet radio show and publisher since 1992 of Gary 17′s to-nite magazine, which is now available through email subscription as full colour jpg or pdf attachments weekly. He also dabbles as an artist and comic [...]