The Soup Kitchen Poem by Martin Lochner

broken shoes
leather uppers
otherwise synthetic

out in the cold
damp oppertunity
of a handout row

bundling smelling
mothball coats and
jerseys

a macabre parade
oozing useless
human shatter

condemned to look down
shamed to look
away

the effluent
benefactors
always

looking at wretched
cheeks
or cranuim crowns

a penniless dignity
crawling somewhere
in a pavement heart

a inconvenient value
worth nothing except
the effort...

to keep them alive....