Donal Mahoney writes

A Bucket and a Tent

America has no caste system

but America has castes.

Like every other nation 

America has its rich and poor

with everyone else sardined

in tight rows in between.  

But America doesn’t have 

Untouchables, as some people  

in India are called. 

Yet in Mumbai and St. Louis

there are people who live in tents

and use a bucket for a bathroom.

In India, birth determines caste.

In America, color of skin 

determines caste. 

No matter how successful 

black or brown Americans 

may be, they remain

black or brown even when

they supervise pale folks

they otherwise might

never have to meet.

What’s in their wallets

matters not if pale folks 

can't see beyond skin 

that’s black or brown. 

Ask any American of color.

Yet some people black and brown 

from castes in other nations 

drown on the way to America.

They believe they’re free 

to earn a living here 

and some of them

are doing that while 

native Americans, both 

dark and pale, survive on 

Medicaid and food stamps

provided they’re poor enough 

to qualify for one or both.

But even if they qualify,

some find themselves in time

with a bucket living in a tent.

Racially segregated New Jack City/Taco Flats homeless encampment, Fresno, California