You Gave Them Keys - A Poem of Thanks from the Homeless

Our table is changing
the laughter subdued this morning
as an undercurrent ripples beneath us
threatening to tear us apart
in the best way.

Court Jester and wife
even now walk to find
if long anticipated hope blooms bright
and their street days end
with brass in hand.

Give us a Key, Give us a hope
and joy shall replace our once desperate laughter
for two of our numbers are leaving us
to set up a real home at last.

Four years and more
in shelters and on streets
waiting for just one thing only
to go right for them
when their luck turned

Now all the wanted
and more indeed than that
with ink on a simple paper
will come about at last
giving them some peace

Give them a key, give them some hope
which they return to others in their turn
and this world will become somewhat better
for some of the homeless now are home.

Coffee, cigarettes and laughs
we will gladly miss tomorrow
those two who walk with pride
of being away at last
from the cold streets.

The void will ache
each lonely sunrise I spend
out in the park, smoking gently.
But better they be warm
than cold with me.

You gave the Keys, You raised their hopes
letting them look beyond tomorrow or next meal
so take that to Heaven's Gates and Peter
telling him, I looked after your flock, Sir...
     ...as the Lord Commanded.