The Modern Beggar’s Opera

 He is now the beggar,

Learning to beg when he came to Tennessee.

A poorer state than his mental was accustomed to;

He came from the sandy sea shores of New Jerzee!

Past lower standard road signs that engulfed him a charity.

Cast off from the casino coast as the beggar in the opera,

A part steeped in challenged integrity.

He learned how to plead.

From courtrooms to donations.

Asking how lives get to this station?

Lines at the food bank,

Social workers and a food stamp.

Massaged not to “worry” through personal indignation.

He became the Master of Ceremonies in the center ring,

Of the Beggar’s Opera.


Act One, Scene three;

Why fly south?

You see in him the modern-day slavery!

To paper the toilet with benefits and not afford to buy a roll.

The playwright casts him impoverished,

 Singing the hills of Tennessee blues.

There is too much of that already;

He’ll not commonly strum a guitar.

Granted a stipend for house rent,

Standing in a line that leads into a former school building.

Now used for adults to cry where formerly did children.

Because of all the years of this play,

He called me to vent and I wrote this for him:

Down and almost out, family had turned their backs;

Broke with no hope and at the end of his rope.

And then….

A sweet freedom angel lands in his inbox.