Social Camera

Across the street and down the lane The long line curves around again And men shivering in the wintry rain Tell adversity's avarice in each refrain This is the worst of time the best is gone This is the end of time, night comes fast And children, old emblems of the dawn Are bent like wheat stalks in the blast How could the prognosis be so wrong, this Endless disease of human spirit, this Cankering cavern of blight upon bliss Something more than human is here amiss And few that gave where many once stood May your blessing be multiplied in kindness And in health, for charity is the brightest bud On the tree of hope in hard time's darkness. Across the street and down the lane Someone is singing a still refrain The human spirit rebuking doubt and pain While men are shivering in the wintry rain. The country is broken, is flat broken This is the end of time night comes fast Compassion is life's last token, last token And children are bent in the bitter blast.