Wasting away

I saw you at the robot the other day

Going car to car, begging

I took out my lunch for you.

You looked at me, eyes lifeless and cold

Snarled ‘Fuck you bitch. I want money.’

While knocking the lunch out of my hand into the road.

I saw you again yesterday

On the opposite side of the road

Two thin T-shirts on, one over the other

Your shoulder blades protruding through.

My heart bled silently when I saw your legs

Deformed from polio as a child?

Clad in nothing more than a pair of shorts

And shod in broken down flip-flops.

My eyes wept for you

When I realised you don’t feel the cold

Or the hunger from living on the street.

When I realised your eyes, so cold and lifeless

Have probably seen all there is to see

And your glue bottle is all that you want.

© Half-p1nt June 2010