Handouts Are Free

Handouts Are Free

by Paul McCann

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I worked with the homeless

around Regent Street and Soho

There were many who were lost .

There were others who didn’t know .

Most of these were under 20 .

All had come from broken homes .

Everyone had broken hearts

and some of them had broken bones .

Little children on the street

who were beaten ,

battered and bruised .

Tossed out just like the refuse ,

unwanted , abused and confused .

They all needed a hug

but on the cold streets there’s no pity .

1989 London .

No fixed abode ,

Cardboard City .

Yes that  was the address back then

when nobody gave a damn.

We handed out paper cups of hot soup

from an old ice cream van.

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