nibbling gnawing pausing to soothe
the rodent teeth working the shmooze

a sewer rat surgically removes
the heel callus of the street urchin, grooves

the child terrors in the nightmare of pains
while the visions out the night screams
his dead mama's reaching skeletal limbs

rat chiseling strikes the blood drinks
the startling pinch, the sleeper blinks
to the shadows, the phantom slinks

the cold, scabies, and the pain making
the five-year-old’s body convulsive quaking

hiding in slum filth, the foot bleeds
mingling blood the maggot feeds

town eats the child, but he cannot
by family and politicians, just left to rot

living in alleys and dumps, uncounted
exterminated secretly, by the police hunted

the puss draining from the foot, now swollen
limps wrapped with rags filthy and rotten

from a street vendor, the silver coin stolen

cobbler glue bought with the shilingi
the straw in an empty juice box, inhaling,

the ragamuffin eats no breakfast, smiling








1.5 10/10