‘Reach Out and Touching Lives’,
With their Search and Rescue Van,
Volunteers feeding, housing (in Hope House)
And clothing the abandoned, hopeless and homeless.
Shrouded in their hoodies, huddled together in the cold,
Their begging bowls and cups outstretched.
Now in their 60’s, stand in small groups
Outside The Mission, surviving on hand-outs,
Eating breakfast buns and drinking steaming coffee.
Escaped from the harsher prejudices in the Deep South cities
Or from lost jobs in the ground down industries
By Lake Michigan, Lake Huron and Lake Erie.
Or alcohol red, West coast Indians,
Battered & bruised, once looking for jobs,
Now incapable of looking,