"Mother's Little Helper" (National Poetry Month Poem-A-Day) Day 11

Written by Bruce A. Pandolfo
4/11/2017


Aye, you see that lady over there runnin' things?
Yeah yeah, the cute lil grandma lady.
Listen, you ain't gonna get one over on her,
that's Ol' Sandy Alger.
That badass broad's been 'round the block.
She can't be shocked.
I know, I know.
She's 71.
But that's what I'm sayin'
She's ran every version of the games you're playin'
long before you or your parent's were born.
She's been clean longer than you and me been livin'
and before that she was a junkie just as long.
I know, I know.
Word is her bedridden mom had nervous breakdowns
so bad she needed two medicine cabinets!
Imagine that jackpot?
Nah don't think about it.
Don't.
But shit that's where it all started, Sandy's Mom
preemptively prescribed some of those captivating
capsules...Just a teensy bit to her teeny kid.
She wasn't even a teen yet!
Sandy's lil helpings of mother's lil helpers.
You remember how it feels!
she was queen of the world!
Mom was a golden goose
for her silver tongued wise-ass smart mouth kid.
Drop out, shit, She hit up other kids for pills.
Gave a whole new name to “junior high”.
Stole from Mom then stole away,
speakin o' new names...
man... Sandy's probably had more
aliases than you've got years in your life.
It was different then,
you could tell the cops anything,
pigs didn't have laptops and databases
and all that techno-jazz.
What else was she gonna do?
Runaway married teen mom,
live-wire, dead broke, needing a fix
pill eater, thrill seeker, teeny bopper drug popper
she stole checkbooks and had fake IDs!

First time in the slammer grandma Sandy
got taken under the wicked wing of the old bats in the clink
and she got better at being worse!
She's right man, I heard her say once
prison is scary 'til you're in it, then it isn't”
she was in and out the clink like a revolving door
reminds me of the cycle she inhabited.
her habits evolved as she climbed the criminal ladder
into the underworld.
in her 20's developed a taste for otherworldly pleasures
inject-able delectables! Kept getting into high-jinks.
She was bulletproof. Flying high. Superwoman
You know the feeling!
Had a hell of a rap sheet, like the bucket sheet of a crime-junkie.
She liked the drugs, she liked money.
Sandy got off on the crime too, even when she didn't get off clean.
And she was never clean, not like she is now.
She had a full track record, arms recorded her track marks.
She never used arms in any of her crimes, knew better than to act hard.

Yo she was in an out of jail for three decades...
Word is she neighbored with the “Nuns For Charlie”.
Yeah Charles Manson. Crazy shit. Assassins, the whole mix.
Stayed high, when co-ed, got with anyone who'd fill her fix.
You heard her, by the 80's she was in for fraud, forgery of checks,
Forgery of prescriptions, possession of H and burglary.
Looks like an ol' rickety bitch
but back in the day,
dash in the bank lickety-split,
make fraudulent withdrawals
to avoid her withdrawals,
she was pretty slick.
30 years she eliciting needle's kiss.
It's amazing that she lived.
They got her good once they found out she
was printing her own cash in the 80s.
She said it was a blast, man she's crazy.
Strung up dollars like garland around the kitchen
staining and dyeing and blow-drying the fake bucks.

She signed herself into Delancey Street...
Yeahhh that really tough place,
probably crazier than here.
Told herself she'd stay 2 years just to be bailable if she was caught again
but like she says, the program worked,
she started believing it..stayed 14 years.
Almost 30 years now she's stayed clean,
pretty amazing, I'm telling you, can't pull the wool over her eyes,
She's been the sheep, she's been the wolf, now she's the Shepard.
couldn't do it her way now but Jesus..hard to imagine.
She's the real deal man.
It's real cool she's running the program here,
She looked out for me,
 she can be a hardass but she won't steer you wrong.
She went from mother's lil helper high on catalyzing samples
to helpful lil grandmother mentor setting examples.
So if she can get through that and be where she is today?

Shit, it's at least worth a shot.




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