Topic: homeless
the continental divide
i've travelled the great divide
between misery and luxury
sidles down the side of rockies
into the state of despair
abandoned farms dotting the wyoming countryside
giving way to progress
and the vast reaches of corporate farms
free roaming ranges of sage and scrub brush
fenced in for the few
gashed by ashphalt and railway
there's money out there
i've seen it
in the lakeside cottages
that could house your family and mine
in the suv's that ignore me on the hgihway
in the gas that feeds those suv's
there's poverty out there too
i've seen it
slip through a town
and the homeless are there
scrabbling for a fix or a meal
the hate filled grafitti
that rises out of frustration and anger
neighborhoods that become nightime warzones
i've travelled the great divide
watched as with time it grows
and the middle fades
on one side the anger
the other insular greed
i await the end
the inevitable violence
and mourn the death of a dream
a dream to young to die
too tired to carry on
i've travelled the great divide
slid down into this state of sadness
and cried
© Michael MacKinnon, 01/12/2007
