How Long Must It Be This Way?

An acrostic dealing with a subject close to my own heart. I spent 6 months homeless. Ah, the stories I heard.

He hides his face within the shadow of a cold concrete wall

One whom frigid society rejected, having no use for him at all

Within his tiny ripped nylon tent, the ants and roaches crawl

 

Like him, the roach, it lives on refuse and still lives strong

Only sometimes he doesn't feel he wishes he'd lived so long

Night is his freind, hiding like a thief; he's not done any wrong

Guided only by the light within , he just keeps traveling along

 

Maybe he'll find a place and a job, and a family to love him

Under the starlight he thinks he can hear a battle hymn

Suspiciously close to renewing his faith in self and them

Then he stops his dreams cold, and realizes hope is dim

 

Imagination brings him back to another place and time

That, and his half-hidden, cheap nasty bottle of wine

Belief in himself gone, no reason to tow the line

Everyone thinks he's just a drunk, wasting every dime

 

There is no truth in the things people think when they see

Him on the street, they don't know who he used to be

In his time, he tried so hard, but nothing is for free

See, he was a laborer, but too old now for labor is he

 

When you look at him, remember, one day he could be you

Any day now you could lose your job and turn right into

Yon filthy thing you turn your head to avoid as you pass

 

 

 

Reviews

[PENS FOR PEACE /TJ CALI..]

Love your work! You hit it straightfrom the heart! Remember he could be you! That's life! You could be on top today and in the lowest of valleys tomorrow! Never judge a person till you have walked a day in their shoes! Great artistic writting! Just keep writting.
If you get a chance please take a look at my work!
It's about a person down on luck that has suffered plenty!
Thanks!
TIM

[Teenage poet]

This is spectacular writing. I wish I could compare to yours but i cant. you have such a miraculous ( dont know if i spelled that right) talent. Nicely done.

[Trée]

Wonderful acrostic poem. As I read I kept thinking, where has the compassion gone in our society? I think, as you so nicely put it, we are all just a thin line away from changing places with that person on the street. And I wonder how many of us ever stop to think what it would be like to be in those shoes. Thanks for sharing your poetry.