Homelessness

I wonder if you think it’s right?
A house where no one sleeps at night,
The windows dark, no sign of life,
While on the street,
In doorways, huddled out of sight,
The homeless sleep.


But this is all that some have known,
A mattress made of cold hard stone,
While standing vacant and alone,
Unoccupied,
A house that could provide a home,
That’s dignified.

©️ Graeme Williams 2019 
 
I wrote this poem after reading a newspaper report that the number of empty homes in England has risen for the second year in a row to more than 216,000 while, at the same time, there has been an increase in homelessness.

Wealth and Poverty

With all of our technology,
And experts in biology,
There’s one thing that still puzzles me.

Why children still go hungry,
While some, in our economy,
Are dying of obesity.

I question the philosophy,
Or economic policy,
That makes our life expectancy,
A matter of geography.

© Graeme Williams 2012

Photograph taken from the Feed My Starving Children photostream on flickr and used under the creative commons licence. I wrote the poem first then came across what seemed to be the perfect picture to illustrate it.