Steps of a Ladder

You turn on the light

When it gets dark outside.
Someone is screaming.
Someone just died.

You sit drinking sherry

From cut crystal glass,
While others sip dew
From blackening grass.

Out of the window
You fail to see
The homeless ones crying
For what cannot be.

You throw away boxes

That someone calls home.
When charities call
You hang up the phone.

You choose to forget

The ones you don’t see,
Yet expect to be helped
When you are in need.

While you dine on three courses

Till full to the brim,
Someone survives
On scraps from the bin.

And all you can do

Is hold out your hands.
For you nearly stood
Where someone else stands.

Do you go to bed dreaming

Of how to befriend
Those who wonder till dawn
How the nightmare will end?