Taxed
by Lylanne Musselman
I
sit outside Starbucks under a blue bright sky,
writing
poems, enjoying music, warm afternoon air.
Featured
singer Willie Nelson croons “Blue Eyes Crying
in
the Rain.” May draws to a close my brief break from
teaching
classes, again composition all summer –
all
semesters. An adjunct who works more full time
than
any tenured professor just to pay my debt
for
being a creative soul, for teaching students
eager
to be me by degrees.
I’m
not unhappy, I’m not complaining –
I’m
just tired of being broke! My friend,
Glenn,
teases he saw my wine at the market,
Broke
Ass, knowing my predicament: another summer,
the
third, strapped because of taxes. It is taxing
to
live and work in America, doing what we love,
Willie
and I, two of many, singing, living, crying the IRS blues.
Bio: Lylanne Musselman is an
award winning poet, playwright, and artist. Her work
has appeared in Pank, Flying Island, The Tipton Poetry Journal, Poetry
Breakfast, So it Goes, Issue 3, among others, and many
anthologies. In addition, Musselman has twice been a Pushcart nominee.
Musselman is the author of three chapbooks, with a fourth forthcoming, Weathering
Under the Cat, from Finishing Line Press. She also co-authored Company
of Women: New and Selected Poems (Chatter House Press, 2013). Presently,
she teaches writing at IUPUI, and online for Ivy Tech Community College.