freaks: A Poem by Rick Kunuch
We are not TRASH
We yearn to breathe
We laugh and cry,
just like you
Or anyone that you’ll meet
WE ARE not TRASH
Store that in your memory
We may look different
But so do you to me
We are not TRASH
And this you must learn
Respect unto respect
And burn onto burn
We are not trash
So step aside with your John Wayne gestures
And the feelings you hide
There is A UNITED FREAK IN ALL OF US
Rick Kanuch
June 2006
Transcribed and Published by R. A. Hull with his permission.
For the man who got me writing, Happy 49Th Birthday Dude!
Rick and I were born in the same hospital a couple days apart. We remember meeting in 1977.
Backup Experience 
I spoke with the Author the other day, mentioned publishing this poem. He told me that they had visited a friend who lives in a make shift house in the Santa Cruz Mtns. He couldn’t get to the end of the dirt road, and so turned around in his landcruiser. A neighboor thought they were 4 wheeling, and locked the Gate on them. When they tried to get out they were confronted by a man who started yelling and calling them “Trash”. My buddy reminded him that they were not. At which point he “made a John Wayne Posture” i.e, he put his hand on his gun under his vest. Nonetheless my friend reminded him, they “were not Trash” and they were released by the man.