"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 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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