Homeless Veterans of America

I found this poem on the front page of a local paper here in Nashville.  The paper is distributed by homeless people.  It costs one dollar and costs about a nickel to produce.  That means by selling these papers, the homeless vendors get 95 cents each paper they sell.  Great employment initiative, and the articles are written by homeless and formerly homeless folks around Nashville.  This was the July issue.

Homeless Veterans of America

BY RICHARD URQUHARTHomeless Veteran(Written under Nashville’s Gateway Bridge)America prefers dead heroesTo make speeches about once a yearBut those of us with broken livesThey really don’t want to hearSo between the wine, the drugs, the whiskeyAnd we can’t forget the beerThey ease our pains and deaden our brainsAs we slide on through the yearsThe Veteran’s AdministrationOn that we’re told to dependThey take good care of retired generalsTheir wives, their kids, their friendsBut those of us with Other DischargeTo us they will not attendGod’s Word plainly states itIn 1 John 3 you seeThere ain’t no haters in heavenSo we both know where they’ll beBut it sure does confound meSo it sure is a mystery to meWhy the downtown businessmen’sassociationKeep dumping their hate on meNashville’s finest despise meAnd love to beat me downCall me the earth’s lowest scumTell me to get the hell out of townTruth is, I can’t call them liarsBecause I’m every man’s fearEvery time I draw nearSo under the bridge I go hideSo don’t build me no dammed statuesTo lay flowers at when I’m goneI don’t want a mausoleumTo hold my rotting bonesAll those dollars too dear to spareDon’t spend on a marble stoneIt’s not my fault I didn’t die over thereWith the others that didn’t come homeYes I’m a card-carrying memberOf the Homeless Veterans of AmericaThousands strong from coast to coastUnder the bridges that we call homeSo Lord I prayGive me the strengthDon’t make me stayLet me take the jumpFrom this bridge that I call home