Pathetic Ugliness Poem by Leon Agnew

I walk in the door,
And I see a face.
It's blank.
There's nothing there,
But wrinkles and pain,
Old scars that never went away,
And dirt.
They're old.
Far older than I will ever be.
Ancient statues wandering
Not-so ancient halls.
It scares me.
Their beady eyes,
Their croaking mouths,
Their limp, gray tongues,
Flapping wildly,
In ancient agony.
It scares me.
I want to leave.
But I have to stay.
It smells like a sewer.
It looks like a sewer.
They look like rats.
And they smell like the sewer.
I want to go home.
I want to go home.
But mommy won't let me go.
'Another minute, ' she says.
Another minute. Another hour.
'Talk to Eleanor.'
It has a name.
I go reeling.
I run away,
Out into the blinding snow,
Where there is no stench of filth,
No hint of blood,
No sign of death.
They'll be dead soon.
But they'll keep coming.
Homeless, hopeless zombies.
They'll keep coming.
It scares me.
Let me go, mommy.
But its another day.
Another deathly hour.
Another hideous minute.
In my grandmother's nursing home.