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Homeless Not Hopeless

“The righteous considereth the cause of the poor:
but the wicked regardeth not to know it.”
Proverbs 29:7

“Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor,
he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.”
Proverbs 21:13

Behold the man in the gutter;
broken, cold and all alone
Beaten by his circumstances,
he has no place to call home

He is the weak and meek amongst us,
he is the man with a wounded heart
Yet becoming hard as steel he hides in alleys,
wondering aimlessly in the dark

The street is his bed, the curb's his pillow,
on which he lays to rest his head
A cardboard box in the winter,
a park bench to find some rest

How can anyone judge, hate or despise him?
“The righteous considereth the cause of the poor
but the wicked regardeth not to know it”
for selfish greed they begrudge and hoard

Broken women with shopping carts,
collecting waste – it’s called alley smarts
Cardboard lining in their shoes,
newspaper patches, what else can they use?

Some were victims of violent crimes,
they were battered and beaten so many times
Others were molested and raped of their childhood,
they lost their minds, don't you think you would?

There are men and women in America's streets,
and from garbage cans they're forced to eat
They are laying stiff in the snow,
with no soft warm blanket to stop the cold

They are starving and freezing unto death,
and they die all alone at their last breath
They are dying in gutter graves and in alley morgues,
there is blood on our hands for we've despised the poor

They need us not to pretend to care,
they are dying daily why don't we share?
By reaching out to them to let Christ heal,
through vessels of clay, God's heart to feel

By allowing Jesus Christ in us to shine through,
in love to pour His mercy true
To look face to face into their eyes,
and from our own flesh not to hide.
© 1993 Raymond Bolton Pena

“Is not this the fast that I have chosen?
to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens,
and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry,
and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house?
when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him;
and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?”
Isaiah 58:6-7

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and as long as you copy them in their entirety
and include the copyright notice at the end of each poem
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