Street Children Poem by Elizabeth Padillo Olesen

Early in the morning
they rise up to scavenge
goodies from the heap
of thrown-away garbage.

Away from classrooms
away from the heap of presents
which pamper the well-off
children of rich parents,

Here they find goodies
from garbage containers
from rising Smoky Mountain
or from forsaken dustbins
in dark street corners.

Without gloves on hands,
they grab these jewels,
earn centavos or few pesos
and offer to their mothers
to buy a kilo of fish or rice.

Street children find wealth
from the heaps of garbage
And they continue to labor as
homeless children - forgotten
and ignored in the madness
of human consumption.

(Elizabeth Padillo Olesen, June 9,2022)