Object Lesson Poem by ivor or ivor.e hogg

Nobody cares, nobody dares.
Show sympathy to such as me.
I’m just a bum, an unwelcome
reminder that you too may com.

to know the depths of misery.
Although you do not want to see,
avert your eyes as you pass by.
You can ignore my plaintive cry.

I too was rich and would not see
that bums deserved some sympathy.
But fate stepped in and fate taught me.
Disaster can strike suddenly.

Reducing men to penury.
From great success to poverty.
Remember this it could be you
here begging for a buck or two.

Just pocket change you can well spare
Can make my life easier to bear
I’m still a man who needs to eat
although I’m living on the street.

You can pass by disdainfully
I learnt my lesson painfully
and so in time my friend could you
in the same way that I had to.

I would much rather earn my way
But fate took all I had away.
She sprang it on me by surprise
perhaps in order to chastise.

me for my inability.
To show a little charity.
to those who had much less than me
I suffered enforced bankruptcy.

I’m not the bum you choose to see.
Today you can look down on me
in the same way I chose to do.
when I was as blind as you.

14-Nov-08

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