A PERSON OF THE STREET

I am a person of the street my life and fate uncertain

and when the others meet my eye in their mind they draw a curtain

felon thief or whore they cast me in a trice

untouchable black carrier of drugs and aids and vice

can they not feel compassion and try to judge the cost

of why I'm here so all alone a lonely soul who's lost

will there be light beyond the dark I ask and cry in vain

as I trod my way to death and hell while feeling their disdain

the reasons for my lot are as varied as the waves

which pound against the beach of life and wash us to our graves

do they not think that I dear long for warm nights by the fire

with loving arms to hold me there and sate my crushed desire

our numbers seem to grow and grow as we wander through the haze

those of us forgotten cast out to Satan's gaze

can not one person measure the plight of souls despair

and save us from the dire depths out in the Devil's lair