Street Urchin’s Lament

My older brother left home at nineteen
Heading north to work in the patch
I tried to follow but couldn’t get on
Maybe that was just circumstance

My brother came home two years later
Addicted to opiates and booze
Two years more he ended up dead
A victim of nothing to lose

My little sister went west at twenty two
Right after she’d got out of college
She’d hoped to find work in accounting
But ended up turning tricks just to manage

She got preggers one time and used her last dime
To pay for a US abortion
Her doc was a quack with a horrible knack
For dosing his clients with morphine

Sis lost her baby but lost her life too
When the doc force-pushed her IV
If the cops ever find him he’ll get some time done
In a federal penitentiary

My old man was a skinflint with a penchant for drink
But he worked every day of his life
Mostly so he could maintain his dis-ease
And beat up his kids and his wife

Mom was a self-professed saint who complained
To anyone standing in earshot
About how her family’d been rich and the son of a bitch
Who she married had blown the whole lot

One day my dad beat her down so bad
She couldn’t stand up very well
She tripped on the stairs in her dis-repair
Now I figger she’s likely in hell

The old man hit the skids on account of the bottle
Hit a tree too when driving home smashed
He went through the windshield pulping his skull
Leaving me a lifetime of trash

Now I’m alone embracing the streets
Cadging quarters and dollars and butts
From normies and druggies and alkies
From tourists and pimps and their sluts

I never got going on anything good
Never much saw any need
Since my family was cursed and I was the worst
Cause I stood by and watched them all bleed

It just didn’t matter whatever might happen
For me life’s a bloody big joke
You’re born and you struggle just to survive
But die anyway…   

Hey, got a smoke?