Misery Lane Poem by Sheena Blackhall

In every city there's a Misery Lane
Where councils dump their misfits, drop outs, bums
The junkies, alcoholics, the insane

Those ghettoes where it always seems to rain
Death stalks them to the beat of grisly drums
Injustice, terror, loss compound the pain

Each tenant wants to move away in vain
To have a garden full of birds and plums
A cottage haven, cheery window pane

The inmates once were not a social stain
Were children, not just economic sums
That make the city budget creak and strain

Now they await the income of the train
Bringing the dealers, fixers. Food bank crumbs
Upsurge of filth spilled from an oily dream

Some die by jellies, speed, smack or cocaine
Or nice old fashioned drunk through toothless gums
Or psychedelicdrugs that rot the brain

Each longs to be rehomed from this domain
For a lost innocence that will not come again
The Caesars of their world downturn their thumbs
For nothing good from shared contagion comes

A busker beggar please their sole refrain
‘Oh why were our potential futures slain? '