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
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