Written for JD Mader's 2minutesgo website - head over there to write, read and comment. Have a good Saturday. The sun is still shining!
Down, not out
Get up, fall down, drop out
People aren’t dropping out for fun,
It’s cos they don’t know how to be any more
Cardboard cut-outs scrawl a life’s pain,
Sound desperation’s mouthpiece of want -
A small request against a backdrop of have
Businessmen glide past the invisible ones
Shuffled into urine-stained doorways,
Rushing to a deadline conjoined with cash -
Humanity at a discount, 50% off,
You won’t find this bargain off the high street
We’re all walking the edge, this delicate balance,
Sky-high rents amid competition for space
They’re hawking pubs and venues for inaffordable homes.
Miss a rent to swap your room for a cardboard box,
Setting up shop in everything you own in hope
That someone will find a drop of empathy and stop
Get up, fall down, drop out
People aren’t dropping out for fun,
It’s cos they don’t know how to be any more
Do you have something to fall back upon?
Did you save enough in case the deck falls?
Did you lock it away safe for that rainy day
Cos the flood’s coming and you won’t have a say
We’re all fragile urns beneath our blind arrogance,
A step away from a slip, a fall, a plunge
A scrap of a dog barks in a lurid neon alleyway
And you feel he’s you, lost, cold and alone,
Looking for shelter, somewhere warm to lay his head
But the Man is busy counting out his pounds
And he hasn’t got time for the waif and stray,
So carry on whining because no one can hear
While the rents go up and winter crawls in to bury.
Copyright Vickie Johnstone, September 21, 2019
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