The Homeless Man

You see a homeless man
Sitting dishevelled on a bench
With his spirit long since flown
And you wonder to yourself
Why he doesn’t have a home.

Well first of all it doesn’t help
That his mother gave him up
Because she was only fifteen
And the shame she felt
Was just too fucking much.

And he was in and out
Of child homes,
And he was sexually abused
And he had to fight
Tooth and nail
Like respect just wasn’t his due.

He was always told he was stupid
And he was always told he
Would fail
And eventually he grew so numb
That the tears dried up
In the well.

And the pain he felt was so intense,
It stabbed like a hot blade
In his heart
So the sweet release of any drug
Was a better pain
For him to cart.

To live in his mind was a mindfuck
But he still had reason enough
To live, for there was a tiny
Slither of light
And in his soul
A few crumbs of love

But that didn’t stop him
From cutting himself
For the pain was how he thrived;
The pain was all he ever knew
And it somehow
Kept him alive.

So the next time you walk
Past this broken man
Remember once
He was an innocent child -
A baby in his mother’s arms.
Before she abandoned him she smiled.

For he was just so beautiful
And he was just so precious
And his mother wished herself to die
With the regret she lived
Every second.

So see this man and embrace him -
Embrace him like he were you.
Embrace him as if you were holding yourself
When you were born,
So new.

Behind every weary figure,
Behind every shouty mess,
There is a person
Shuffling through this cutting world
Who just wants some tenderness.