THE HOMELESS
By Jeff Britto

We see them every day.
Look at them with disgust and dismay
and call our children in from play.
They are of every ethnicity and background,
found in every city and every town.
The numbers of them surely do astound.

Their faces are gaunt and stressed.
They’re always disheveled and unkempt.
Their situations are desperate and stark as they make
their homes in our parks and doorways,
or in a huddled mass
in alleyways amongst rats and trash.

Others hide away under highway ramps.
Those we’ve labeled bums, derelicts, and tramps.

When will come the day when we take stock of ourselves and say,
Homelessness won’t be solved unless we all get involved?

Perhaps we should concentrate less on self and personal vanity
by questioning our common decency and our humanity.

Let’s all look a little deeper, because we really and truly are
our brother’s keeper.