William H.A. Willbond MSM, CD

OUR HOMELESS AND INSANE

Photo: “What To Say?” ©Copyright by John-Ward Leighton taken on the DTLES streetsSocial workers wanted freedom for inmates in our bedlam
They helped to close the mental hospital doors with a slam
The patients went forward, venturing out to the mean street
Soup kitchens and food banks, that is now where they eat

The Governments made monies when they laid-off the staff?
That’ll teach those dammed Unions-Who got the last laugh?
Where do you sleep, you criminally homeless and insane?
Why, it’s out on the mean streets, full of suffering and pain

This is the down side of our Politically Correct human rights
The mentally injured sleep outside on winter’s cold nights
Stolen by druggies and drunks, losing their welfare cheques
Because there isn’t anyone special who really gives a heck

There is a new industry now and it’s flourishing out there
By community health workers and some people who care
There are some homeless shelters and a needle exchange
For the street druggies and drunks and the visibly insane

There are no citizens tax monies really being saved
By the shutting of mental institution for the semi-insane
They nightly urinate and defecate out on the mean street
Is it a tourist attraction to watch where you place your feet?

Author’s Note: DTLES – Down Town Lower East Side is a Vancouver district where the derelict rooming houses are being replaced by upscale Yuppie Condos for the 2010 Olympics. It’s also the dwelling place of Homeless People, some of whom are insane, drunkards, or druggies (or a combination of all 3). Some of these people were released from mental institutions as a gesture of human rights and to save taxpayer monies when the institutions were closed and staff laid-off.