Poverty looks like this...

A man approached me in the street one day and asked me for some change..I told him I had nothing to give. It was the truth. He took one second to look at me from head to toe and the silently walk away.

I know what he saw when he looked at me, but I wish I could have told him that my dress was on sale and my pearl and sterling silver necklace was a fake. I wish I could have told him that my mother sits through services at churches to "shop" in there pantries. I wish I could have told him that every year that I fill out financial aid forms just to have to fill out some more forms to "verify" all the shit I just said. All because my school doesn't understand how my family lives off such little money. "There's no way", they say. It's amazing how much prayer can fill an empty stomach, I always think to my self.

I wish I could have told him that he wasn't alone. I wish I could have told him that poverty sometimes looks like this. Sometimes it looks like me...

But he was probably a drunk so I didn't bother. Besides this is America, you don't share that kind of shit with strangers.