The Girl From The Poverty Trap Poem by Francis Duggan

Her dad is in jail for drug trafficking and she hasn't seen him for years
And her mother is in an asylum a victim of phobias and fears
She's been on the streets since she was fourteen and she knows all the tricks of her trade
She sells her favours to buy heroin and nothing of her life she's made.

She's only nineteen she looks older at a guess you'd say thirty two
And she doesn't fear the supposed hell hereafter for hell here on Earth she's been through
Will she too be found in a laneway another victim of foul play?
So many like her have a brief span and die in a horrible way.

The well off bloke feels that she can do better and on her he tends to look down
But he's never lived in the sad slums he comes from the top end of town
If he feels that she can be a success he must be a gullible chap
He should not be the one to judge her since he's never been in the poverty trap.

It's easy to say words come easy that more out of life she can make
That she like us all had her chances but the wrong road she's chosen to take
They've never been in the position of living with nothing to lose
And how can you pass judgement on one if you've never walked in their shoes.

I am not the one for to judge her since I've always had enough to eat
Since I'd not been Homeless at fourteen and had to live rough on the street
Compared to her I've known it easy and I've been living on luxury's lap
And can't say that she's had her chances the girl from the poverty trap.