Coffee thick and strong,

Cooked over an panhandlers stove.

~

A barrel fire for warmth,

Trash confiscated as fuel.

~

Emitting the foulest of odors,

Room for but a few.

~

Night frigid under tenement shadows,

Shanties erected haphazard.

~

Rags moth eaten and ragged,

Held up by anything scavenged.

~

Shelters vulnerable to the storm,

Little choice in the matter.

~

Homes taken,

Jobs shipped overseas.

~

Children hungry and cold,

Let down by an unsympathetic people.

~

A movie scene?

No, these are real lives.

~

Real people,

This is life on the street.

~~ D. R. DiFrancesco ~~