Winos

Working in any large city and even small towns, one is frequently confronted by panhandlers. Many who are down on their luck turn for solace to alcohol.  The following is based on many such confrontations with desperate, albeit creative panhandlers.

WINOS

12/29/69

Winos should be authors

For the stories they invent

Are designed to touch the hearts of prosperous men

Their eloquence on tough luck

Is unmatched in all the world

And they’ll tell their sad story when ‘ere they can

They’ll tell you they need only

Eight more cents to buy a meal

As you reach in your pocket you know damn well

That as soon as you touch their dirty palm

With a little piece of change

They’ll go and blow it all on muscatel

They’ll ask you for direction

To a local cheap hotel

And ask for a little help to buy a bed

They’ll tell you how their pride

Is crushed to have to beg

And their wine soaked breath's enough to knock you dead

They’ll tell you of a family

Left starving in the hills

While they hitched a ride to town to find a job

Through tearful eyes they’ll tell you

That work is hard to find

And they’ll ask you for some money with a sob

Sometimes with open honesty

They’ll meet you on the street

Sayin’, “Buddy would you be a pal of mine?”

I’m down on my luck

Could you spare a little change

To help a drunk like me to buy some wine?

You’ll hear a hundred stories

From a hundred different smokes

And sad to say that most are probably true

They’ll touch your heart for sympathy

When they tell their woeful tales

If someone’s going to help, it must be you

Winos should be authors

For if they had the will to write

They could tell the whole world about their pain

If they could put their tragedy

In poetry or prose

Instead of muscatel, they’d drink champagne.

FAR