Poems ✍️

^ We The Unencumbered

Tattered misfits, we are called,
We ask not hate nor love;
Survival is our handbook
Stitched with suspicion's glove.
....We the unencumbered -
........We the homeless rove...

Nomads of an affluent age,
Life viewed from simple stance;
Lacking wage or praise of skill
We use what comes of chance.
....We the unencumbered -
........We the homeless stand...

Exiled by necessity,
We accept what has to be.
Yet beats a heart within us
That bleeds as others bleed.
....We the unencumbered -
........We the homeless need...

Pride we own, as fierce as yours,
And devotion to a creed:
The lux'ry of simplicity
Is what we ask and need.
....We the unencumbered -
........We the homeless plead...

That we your discards salvage,
For which you have no use,
Condemns us not as outright thieves,
Nor do we all abuse.
....We the unencumbered -
........We the homeless choose...

Not to offend your conscience
Do we offend your eyes,
Or creep beneath your city life,
Or sleep beneath your skies.
....We the unencumbered -
........We the homeless bide...

Dim beneath your high-rise flats;
Your costly tenements,
Where order and disorder meet
In churlish arguments,
....We the unencumbered -
........ We the homeless tent...

Relieved of rent or power bill,
No cable TV fee;
Allotted to the crumbs that fall,
We joy in what is free.
....We the unencumbered -
........We the homeless spree...

Drop-outs from affluency,
Who own naught but ourselves;
Senses dulled for want of tears,
Numb for want of cause.
....We the unencumbered -
........We the homeless pause...

Against the angry indigo
In the profile of a storm,
Amid our cardboard shanties
Where newsprint keeps us warm
....We the unencumbered -
........We the homeless scorn...

Palates trained in preference,
We forage as the beast.
Over-ripe, rejected scraps
Become the gleaner's feast.
....We the unencumbered -
........We the homeless fast...

Reclaimed costumes, dated, yet
Suited to a timeless style;
In beauty of sufficiency
Resplendent for a while.
....We the unencumbered -
........We the homeless smile...

Deprived of aspirations,
But to live as best we dare.
Ambition is, as we have seen,
But avarice of care.
....We the unencumbered -
........We the homeless share...

Poverty out-witted for -
History's pages do attest -
All humans are not fitted for
Civ'lization's callousness.
....We the unencumbered -
........We the homeless rest.