If a child needs a band-aid and his mother doesn’t have one
Jane has one. It is deep
in the zippered compartment of her purse, its wrapper
worn as an old dollar.
Matches, bottle opener, tweezers, ibuprofen.
Nail file, bug spray, chapstick, sunblock.
Jane never did buy the tool to break
her sinking car’s window.
Whatever happened to her swiss army knife
with all its clever integrity?
Simone’s dad is early
for Ballet pickup.
S Is For Shame
Jennifer Habel
Jennifer Habel is the author of Good Reason, winner of the Stevens Poetry Manuscript Competition. Her poems have appeared in the Believer, Gulf Coast, the Massachusetts Review, the Southeast Review, and elsewhere.