The Other Side of the Tracks

The Other Side of the Tracks By Elton Camp The poor you always have with you” These words of Jesus are still too true The folks who read this haven’t known The cruel nature of poverty of one’s own That is equally true in my case as well Just the same, their story I’ll try to tell For I have seen poverty not so far away And have heard the things they must say It’s in a middle-class town where I reside But penury exists, just not side-by-side Quite near, just across the railroad track Live the poor, some white and some black They remained almost invisible to me Until I worked census and then got to see Rooms in a shack sealed with cardboard As that was the best they could afford How many baths have you, but never mind I already saw the crude outhouse just behind Plank floors, protruding springs in chairs I’d hate to experience the life that’s theirs Food stamps and other types of handout Are the things their life is mostly about Lacking even a minimum high school degree Better circumstances they aren’t likely to see Their children suffer perhaps with silent rage Drop out of school when they come of age From this, what could finally come to be Is it class warfare that we will come to see? Some few the cycle of poverty will break But most a success in life will never make A sad, young girl sits and glumly stares And wonders if anybody, about her cares I can only describe what I know to be so But a practical solution I just don’t know