On winter nights I think of them,
The homeless mothers with their children. Some who have some education
Choose instead a temporary classy prostitution With married men, but not them.
Their station often allows them no choice But to leave a worse situation:
One battering husband or de facto for another. Any other might be as bad, so they are glad To beat the street.
Others are mothers
Who can no longer pay the rent.
They haven’t sold their souls to pay the price For someone else’s vice.
They sleep in cars and beg for food
While they ache for their young brood. Welfare income doesn’t always bring Enough to pay one’s way today.
Landlords can be heartless.
They don’t want to rent to damsels in distress With young children in tow,
So they raise the rent
So high that only those without “baggage” Are meant to be able to pay it.
Dare I say it? This society
Is going backwards. The propriety
Of women who work and shirk
The responsibility of caring for their young Is sung in high places,
But the homeless are “disgraces”.
Some were factory workers, not shirkers, But their wage wasn’t equal to paying the rent, And the sequel was that they were sent Out in the cold by some landlord or agent.
Most times it is no more than chance –
A woman’s station – so the nation
Should hold its head in shame that it should blame These mothers for their circumstance.
Only wealthy mothers can afford to board Their children with others while they follow a career, Yet some sneer at those who can’t choose but lose. When will we work together whatever life brings us, The mothers who can choose a career,
And those who fear homelessness and starvation?
Our nation’s economy can’t deal with the dilemma. Our society must change its pattern to whatever
Circumstance requires. Our desires must fall in with our needs. The seeds of decline have been sown.
History has known the decline and fall
Of civilizations past. Rome was the last.
Are we westerners all to go the same way?
Unless we change our society as well as our economy There will come a day when history’s page will tell the tale Of how our civilization chose to fail
Its children. They are our future,
And their mothers with them. They are crucial.
They should be free to nurture
And protect the ones they care for.