031610e Social Sickness Poem by Manonton Dalan

i saw an influx of wandering people
you can see them in malls, street
neighborhoods knocking on doors
looking for jobs like cutting your grass
fixing your plumbing, your fence
installing wooden floors, sheet rocks

it is used to be summer when they come
they speak english very well from north
i have somebody who approached me
not long ago asking for pocket change
said 'he and his wife are in hard times'
i offered pieces of chicken but refuse

i wonder why they ask money for food
yet they refuse if you give them food
could it be what they need is something
like a means to send them on orbit
to dream far away, away of the present
it's a pity, it's society's sickness we have