The Street Girls Of St Kilda Poem by Francis Duggan

By day they do not venture out they hide from the sunlight
The street girls of St Kilda those ladies of the night
They spend most of their night takings on heroin and cocaine
And shortly after nightfall they are on the streets again.

At dimly lit street corners you see them ply their trade
And for their sexual favours they are quite highly paid
But when they turn thirty with nothing to show for their time
They are seen as past their use by date when most are in their prime.

The street girls of St Kilda could speak of childhood hell
Of abusive parents who too were abused dark stories they could tell
On the streets from their early teens and hooked on drugs and booze
By their harsh circumstance of birth they had been born to lose.

Do not judge them unkindly if you judge them at all
Unless you yourself have lived it rough and out of hell did crawl
And got your life in order and put your past behind
But you are not the type who judge if you've been of their kind.

The street girls of St Kilda don't envy them their lot
When darkness cloaks the suburbs they come to the same spot
And stand at the dimly lit corner by dark laneway off the street
Each has their own small territory which they know as a 'beat'

Like light shy nocturnal creature they hide from the daylight
The street girls of St Kilda only come out at night
And stand at the street corners and call out to the passers by
The life they lead not an easy life and one most would not enjoy.