The woman on the stair 

Desperation seemed to hang over her,  

imbuing every smile and joke with the stain of falsity. 

People wondered about her sanity, so did she 

She spoke of her old life so eloquently

You could see she was trying, to stop dying 

But life on the edge must be tiring 

The street is no place for a person like her 

But there she sat, on the stair, over there 

Was it a series of unlucky events 

That made her lose her way? 

Did she have love? Back in the day 

Before she went astray. 

There’s no one else here  – does anyone care 

I feel a rising sense of despair 

At the world,,at myself, at whatever brought her here 

To be buried in haste on this cold day 

With nothing left to give away.