Homeless, Broke and Hungry by reggie miles

What happened to the salvation in Salvation Army?
Oh where's all the good in Goodwill?
And where has the saint in Saint Vincent De Paul gone,
now that I've grown so ill?
The bottom's dropped out, I'm out on the street
and my prospects are all lookin' nil.
Oh, what's happened to the salvation in Salvation Army,
and where's all the good in Goodwill?

I went to the gospel mission today,
The Church Of The Kindly Light,
and asked for a little something to eat
and someplace to sleep for the night.
They told me there wasn't any room at the inn
and that the kitchen was closed for the day.
Then they enlightened in no uncertain terms,
they said get out and be on your way.

Disillusioned I wandered without being fed
with no place to lay my poor weary head.
Then I spied a green dumpster full of discarded bread
but when I tried to dive in, the store clerk just said.
Go on now. Move along. That's no place to be.
Have you tried gettin' food stamps? I hear that they're free.
I told him I'd never been this down before.
He just solemnly pointed the way out the door.

As nightfall fell, there came a chill to the air.
So I went to a thrift store, to buy cold weather wear.
But the prices they asked for those donated clothes,
were beyond what my meager wallet could hold.
Hungry and cold I roamed aimless through town.
Until I paused to rest where no chair could be found.
And as I sat on the sidewalk to ease my sore feet,
I was fined fifty dollars for sittin' on the street.

What happened to the salvation in Salvation Army?
Oh where's all the good in Goodwill?
And where has the saint in Saint Vincent De Paul gone,
now that I've grown so ill?
The bottom's dropped out, I'm out on the street
and my prospects are all lookin' nil.
Oh, what's happened to the salvation in Salvation Army,
and where's all the good in Goodwill?

There's a moral here somewhere, maybe three or four.
Without compassion for each other what are we livin' for?
When the greed of the rich out weighs the need of the poor,
what's left is a world that's fit to abhor.

© Reggie Miles