Yesterday's Children
These are the children who belong to the street.
Abandonment showing in each face you meet.
Did they leave their homes because no one cared;
or because of forbidden "ecstasies" they shared.
They were young children only yesterday;
making new friends, finding their way.
Now life has etched each face with despair.
Only the streets hear their voices and care.
When they left, did we kiss them goodbye;
say they can always find us if only they try?
Or, were they thrown angrily out onto the street,
into the cold night to walk on stumbling feet?
Do some of us worry our child will be cold?
Do some turn deaf ears to the tales they are told?
And what about those, whose children chose right
do we still pass by those huddling in the cold night?
Have our hearts hardened as we told ourselves lies?
A National Disaster, we say, closing our eyes.
They once were children, running, laughing, and free.
Can't we extend a hand to lighten their misery?
What are a couple of bucks, a few moments spent
talking to them? We can't know what that has meant.
Yesterday's Children; Tomorrow's Child.
Don't let them slip away, alone and reviled.
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