Forgotten People Poem by Francis Duggan

In Council Flats live the forgotten people
At the slum end the poorer side of town
They live on welfare like their dads before them
And from where they live a long hike to renown.

They always wear their football scarves and beanies
And take them with them everywhere they go
They worship their football teams and football heroes
The only sort of culture that they know.

Their addresses they find not to their advantage
For employees employers look elsewhere
They tend to think that those living in the slum parts
Unfit for work and softened from welfare.

With the Council Flats the cops are well acquainted
They know it as a breeding ground for crime
There are not many there without crime record
Who have not been in jail and served out time.

Those born there are born to disadvantage
The expectations of them is to fail
How can you expect to end up a winner
If all your role models have been to jail? .

How can you expect to soar like an eagle
If you don't have the powerful wings to fly
If you don't have role models to inspire you
To have success in life you may not try? .

The politicians only call to see them
To beg them for their votes on voting day
But when they are elected to high office
From council flats they tend to keep away.

By circumstance of birth forgotten people
Condemned to life of crime and poverty
Still they are less impure in ways than many
Who have climbed to highest branch of success tree.