Marie Jo Salter On A Certain kind of Home

''As if being eighty-five or ninety 

and terrified and talked down to loudly 

and pushed around in wheelchairs by the staff 

all day weren't bad enough, 

for tonight's entertainment the local Brownies 

have come to sing Christmas carols.''

- Mary Jo Salter (b. 1954), U.S. poet. 

"Brownie Troop #722 Visits the Nursing Home," 

lines 1-6 (1994).