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The Hidden Plague [1]
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Date: 2023-03-10
Is this a common sight in your community? Are you next?
There are between 500,000 — 600,000 homeless people in this country. As the climate change brings unexpected and more fierce weather, this number is likely to grow.
The Hidden Plague
The hard shivering started
To warm once again
The layers of clothes she wore and
The coverings over her,
As she lay in her nest
Unloved, alone
In the bushes that grew
In a tiny wild spot inside the town
"I'm so cold," a small voice said,
Heard only by the wind...
In the morning she had become
The next statistic –
The homeless lady found
Dead from the temperature dropping
Over a long night.
Where are the warming stations?
Where are the temporary Bucky Domes?
Christian Nationalists are spending, this year,
100 million dollars in advertising
To tell us how good their Jesus is...
The real Jesus would have funded
100 millions dollars in housing
For the homeless.
Homelessness is lethal –
Morbidity is three times higher
For those without a home.
Homeless deaths surged in 2022
Due to extreme weather and
Economic hardship.
.. And on it goes,
If you are using your
God-given lump of awareness,
You know the conditions of the homeless
And of this world.
Any and all of us are one disaster away
From joining the invisible people
Tomorrow we may lose our homes and cars
And even our lives.
It could be the loss of a job
Or other financial woes,
Medical problems – Mental health – Drug addiction
Physical impairment – Old age – Pandemics,
Natural causes – Wild fires – Floods
Droughts – Earthquakes – Storms – Rising seas,
Or Man's own stupidity – Wars – Crimes
Pesticides and environmental degradation – Industrial accidents
Religious and/or political fascism.
We know or can create the answers
To ameliorate the damage from such scenarios –
Solutions rooted in education, hard work
Generosity and helping hands,
We need merely to elect leaders
Whose souls we can trust
And get involved in the action ourselves,
Or, we could just do nothing,
But debate ad infinitum
Green M&M's,
Until our own day comes
To be lost on the streets.
___________________________________
This poem was written to acknowledge an unknown, homeless woman who recently died, from the cold, in my local community. She is, at least, in this small way remembered.
Carl Scott Harker ©2023
__________________________________________
My latest book of poetry is now available on Amazon, you can find more great poems in here: An Engineer of Words.
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