Cardboard Street

Cardboard Street

Look in your city

Your town or your street

Look for the cardboard

That rises at night

To shelter the homeless

On a cold windy night

From all walks of life

Theses box dwellers come

The sick in the mind

The frail and the weak

Cardboard and paper

Are homes they all keep?

Cornflake or Porridge

As long as it fits

Their bodies at night

In the parks or the streets

They line them with paper

As much as they find

And pray to their god

That the weather is kind

The drip of the rain

The roar of the wind

The sound of their heart-beat

When huddled within

Sleep is not easy

On a cold winters night

When the frost and the snow

Threaten frostbite.

Night air is bitter

When craving for sleep

Especially when raining

And the box starts to leak

The box is all-soggy

And falling apart

Time to move on

And find a new home

Of cardboard and paper

And a cold pavement stone.

But now it’s our hero’s

Who sleep all alone

Have no place to sleep

No home of their own

Many have died

Crippled and maimed

Then thrown in a gutter

The wastage of war

Their duty is done

Not wanted no more.

Peter Wicks