Colin F. Jones

CHANGING TIMES

~ 1 ~

I recall when church doors were never closed,
When you could walk in off the street at any time,
Sit in the shadows indisposed,
Until your thoughts were calmed and fine.
There was always a caretaker somewhere around,
One of the clergy was often there,
They’d let you sit there without a sound,
They knew you’d go once repaired.
But later they locked them; all the doors,
Vandals they said damaged and stole,
That was stated as the official cause,
But it left folk like me out in the cold.
So I didn’t go anymore I just stayed outside.
And for a while I just sat and cried.

~ 2 ~

One night I was chased away,
I was knocking on the door “Let me in,”
I just had some words I wanted to say,
To share with God; to share with him.
But the Police car they had called came round,
With blazing torches they searched about,
While I sat in a tree without a sound,
For they would treat me as a troublesome lout.
I was arrested once because my coat was red,
And because my empty pockets marked me poor,
Because I could not afford to find a bed,
And because God’s lost house had locked its door.
Six hundred miles I had walked you know,
Just seeking work and a fair dinkum go.

~ 3 ~

It’s when you go looking over the fence,
When you cross the road to the other side,
When you’ve only got one pair of pants,
When you’re not sitting by the fire inside.
It is when you are hungry and afraid,
In a world where you have never been,
When you avoid the light to walk in the shade,
That you discover that people are real mean.
When you are all alone and lost,
A boy in a world where no one cares,
That you discover the terrible torturous cost,
Of harbouring thoughts that no one shares.
Yet I still walked that wondrous line,
Through that city of sin and beckoning crime.

~ 4 ~

I looked through the lattice the dance went on,
The music played the couples swung by,
There was a smile on the face of everyone,
And I clung to the framework with an envious sigh.
Oh how I longed to be there on the floor,
Dressed up to kill with a coat and tie,
With some beautiful girl whom I would adore,
Making me feel all funny inside.
“Hey you! You without the shoes! Yes you,
Get away from there; yes go, go away”
You can’t go into a dance like that you know,
And anyway you don’t have the money to pay!”
It seemed always that the music, laughter and play,
Was somewhere far off… so far, far away…