Beggars Poem by Raken Marimuthu

Man, the image of God is begging in the street
For a morsel of food to fill the flame of his hunger
And prolong the process of begging forever and ever
Taking begging a serious professional job like others
For he has no boss, no pressure and works at his pace
Everywhere is his office and every donor his customer
His pleading for money has become a costly action
Its repetition has become an insensitive habit of his life
The cancerous virus of habit has stamped his character
A lifestyle of brand to prey on the compassionate
In the process he has become numb to all his senses
The benevolent donors have become a cause of this evil
Now it has become a disgrace, a menace to humanity
To see my brothers and sisters crawling in the street
Feeding on the garbage for their survival as a citizen
While mountains of food is wasted on one end
And the millions striving for a loaf of bread are increasing
Like the lifelong indispensable needy flesh trade
Begging has also become part and parcel of life
Burying one’s dignity and humanity in begging
Why is this so when life is a challenge and a struggle
Of the Great Spirit to sport life in its exuberance
To be the paragon on earth as living human beings
The only way it looks to lift the dignity of these men
By stopping short term donation and find long term solutions
By making begging in public a mandatory crime
And also it is a serious social legal crime for any
Body to be found of wasting food for any reason on earth
If this be so, beggars will disappear and they will fight
To regain the paradise lost to be human being again.

4pm Thursday 1st Nov 2012, Khartoum
Raken Marimuthu