These downtrodden ones of the earth
Unable to bear the stress and strains of these hard times
Some find refuge in drugs and alcohol
Thus destroying their mental equilibrium
Others devastated by debilitating diseases
Are driven by desperation into the streets
Some through wanton want and abject poverty
Finding no useful purpose in life
All hope for a means of livelihood gone
Resort to guiltless guile
Feigning either ill health or madness or both
They find ready escape into the mendicant profession
They are everywhere
These downtrodden ones of the earth
Like sore thumbs they stick out
On streets, in market places
All public places being littered
With this human refuse
Oh what a show of shame!
To see such human waste
Its tatters and manners of rage
Becoming the trademark of our cities
Dragging their wasted frames along
They moan and cry at their unenviable lot
Such rending moans like smoke
Rise to the heavens for mercy and vengeance
On a society turned so callous and uncaring
By selfishness and insatiable quest for wealth and
Power
At death their corpses adorn the streets
Ready meals for the voracious and scavenging vultures
Passersby hardly perturbed by the immoral sight
Shield their nostrils from the assaults of the putrefaction
Of the downtrodden ones of the earth
That need you now.
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