Homeless

'Homeless' by Alec Davison

I looked into his eyes
and saw only emptiness
infinite resignation: despair.
I saw someone drowning
in the ocean of hurting,
rootless, flotsam, adrift
homeless: without home.
No belonging, no company
someone beaten to nothingness.
Empty eyes, empty heart.

His only shelter a broken box
and damp blanket in bitter cold.
Treated bitterly, now beyond bitterness.
Bruised from fights, abused by family
runaway, long suffering, rough sleeper.
Ageless, sorely vulnerable, rejected.
No belongings just a plastic bag
crammed with nothings, a hoard of junk
but all he could call his own.
Empty eyes, empty pockets.

He cared for himself no longer
as no-one had cared for him:
‘not wanted’ on his voyage of life.
Unimaginably alone: sundered.
He needed now to live far from those
who had distanced themselves from him.
Without love from another
Without faith in living
With only hope, glimmering,
In emptiness, emptiness…

A lyric by Alec Davison to one of Tony Biggin’s new songs to be first sung at a weekend’s music making – ‘Makepeace Daly Turns the Tables’ – at Glenthorne Quaker Centre, 20-22 October 2017.

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