Two Women: (A Poem Upon the Conclusion of Another Year of Volunteer Income Tax Assistance)

On the last day for taxes
two women arrive
after we are packing up boxes
to close the end of another season.

Picking up stray papers
and stacks of tax forms,
I hear the first woman crying
sitting next to her preparer.
Somehow having her taxes completed
forces her to re-think
all of the tough times
she faced this past year:
the spousal abuse,
subsequent divorce,
and stalking by an angered male
and his friends.
I don't remember
her income or her taxes.
I just remember her tears.

The second woman comes just
as the first's return is being reviewed.
She lives solely on her supplemental security income
of $674 per month
and is in arrears on property taxes
and other bills
of which she has a shoe box full.

These are my memories
of a tax season coming to an end:
an abused woman forced to relive her abuse
by the simple filing
of an annual tax return
and a poor woman
who struggles to pay for a home
without enough income
to do so.

Memories of
two women.


P.S. A song from Billie Holiday:

Lady sings the Blues

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdCIsMeA8eY&feature=fvwrel