Broken pallets feed the flaming barrel,
Barely warming the bone’s frozen marrow
Walking constantly it keeps them alive
Pausing searching by this fire survives.

A child standing in half light shivering,
Icy winter weather sounds as wind sings,
Mother’s body blocks chill as best she can,
Staying swaying so weak it’s hard to stand.

Burning fading the fuel is now all spent,
Shaking making her way to a steam vent,
Hugging softly a child to cold to play,
Hoping something good happens the next day.

Tears of ice hide in the darkness of night,
Fears of nothing return with the sunlight.
She has no fearing for her own dying
Expect that her child might see her crying.

Kitchen of soup and bread the poor it feeds,
Only meeting body subsistence need
Spirits dwindle each day they must wander,
Shrinking further each night by trash fire.

This lost couple I’d seen the night before,
During the day bought blankets at the store,
Night returned but they were no longer there,
Maybe their searching found some warmth elsewhere.

When twilight morn broke into the dark sky,
I made it a point of just driving by,
Brother James took from me the warm blankets,
Saying nothing of knowing where they went.

Christmas giving had dwindled with the days,
Seems the spirit each year less time it stays,
Winter chilling ends not in December
Charity seems hardest to remember.