Beaches

My grandmother, Margaret

Kept sand in tiny bottles

On her window in the sun

Facing a gray parking lot

In an apartment in the city

Far from beaches in Fiji.

The Galapagos and Miami

Places that people traveled

While she stayed home alone

Writing poetry and wondering

Why homeless people sleep

On cardboard in parking lots

In a wealthy nation where people

Vacation to beaches on islands

And capture sand in bottles

For grandmothers who write

About economic inequality