Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ANYWHERE, NOWHERE, by JOHN WILLIAM LLOYD


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ANYWHERE, NOWHERE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Oh, the ignominy! Oh the shame of it, the
Last Line: Forever be nowhere?
Alternate Author Name(s): Lloyd, J. William
Subject(s): Homeless; Poverty; Youth


Oh, the ignominy! Oh, the shame of it, the shame of this monumental
national shame that a quarter of a million of the flower of our youth, boys and
girls, homeless and hopeless, uncared for, unemployed, are drifting about this
our land, anywhere, nowhere.

Like the lines of garbage washed up along our waterfronts, swept in by this
tide, swept out by that tide, drifting along, back and forth, anywhere, nowhere.

Homeless, hopeless, jobless; no future, no welcome anywhere; dirty, lousy,
ragged, less wanted than the pariah dogs in a Turkish town; pitied, despised,
avoided, suspected, arrested, driven on anywhere, nowhere:

"You are not wanted here! Go on! -- anywhere, nowhere!"

Twelve thousand young girls, sharing their sex with all the males for food,
protection, warmth, a semblance of affection and comradeship; more promiscuous
than young dog-bitches, yet kind, yet loyal, washing, cooking, sewing for and
mothering the poor, heartsick, mateless young derelicts of their gangs.

Boys and girls in wolf-like packs; sleeping in flophouses, in jungles, in
jails, under bridges, in bunches in box-cars, huddled like beasts for warmth and
protection; begging, bumming, stealing, refused work everywhere; always hungry
and underfed; blistered by heat, chilled by cold; cursing, fighting, despairing;
nursing a deep, blind, dangerous hatred; fast becoming criminals -- drifting
along anywhere, nowhere.

And this in our land of overproduction and potential plenty, with a religion
professing universal love; with food rotting in bins, clothing breeding moths on
shelves, all in sight of starving eyes, in ragged, freezing forms, of those
forbidden to touch or take, refused power to earn -- driven along anywhere,
nowhere,

Like the garbage along our seashores, washed in by this tide washed out by
that tide, drifting along, anywhere, nowhere.

Oh, when will the wise and the brave unite and rise up and abolish this
dragging, driving torture and murder, in soul and body, of our innocents; this
crime-school; this horrible un-American shame, by abolishing that system of
profit-for-a-few, against universal human values, that now leeches on all our
lives and envenoms all our virtues?

Or shall this one certain and vital remedy, which now is not anywhere,
forever be nowhere?





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