Us

I slept safe last night

I ate a meal today

My life was not a fight

I didn’t need to runaway

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The sidewalk became my bed

Hunger found me longing

Fate shook me in the head

Now only on the streets belonging

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Fear grips us all in the dark

Our abusers at our dinner table

Violation clear and stark

Our tiny lives so unstable

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A needle now brings me rest

A bag of glue becomes my food

I find escape; not the best

My relief is simple, crude

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Criminals not, yet bars us do keep

Prison gruel food on the cheap

Injustice makes us fight and weep

A system rigged to hold us in defeat