‘scum of the earth’

This boy is not mad he just hasn’t seen good

he pilfers your dustbin in search for his evening food

people say if he had stayed in school and studied math

he’d have had it better than a church rat

I remember thinking this man was too old

to be selling just waste baskets on the busy road

and this little girl was just to young

to have a dazzling face but a swollen tongue

the loudspeaker plated that ice cream song

it seems better to shut your mind and not ponder, right?

but that’s like saying the world is dark because you don’t see light

to these people, life has been rough

but what they lack, we have more than enough

Kay Ugwuzor