If only beggars would brush their teeth

If Only Beggars Would Brush Their Teeth

If only beggars would brush their teeth
Learn to live like decent people
Stop spitting in the street
And attend church regularly
Things would have improved for all of us.

If only they would learn to stop
Thrusting their dirty appendages
against my side mirror
Smearing their dirt
against my sleek Musso
As if I were the one
who made them so helpless.
pitiful and pregnant and poor...
How I wish they could learn some manners!

If only they would show some sympathy
Understand that I am extremely busy
For an urgent nation building meeting
And that I'd gladly give away my last cent
If they care to wait here upon my return journey...

How I wish beggars knew some manners
Some NGO should take time to teach them
How to ask without begging
How to win our hearts without pleading
How to smile without looking so hungry
Look here Mr. Beggar
Just ask. and you shall be given!

I don't mind your menacing canines
The rotten mollars or your watery eyes
As long as you keep away
And not try to kiss my palm
In a feigned thanksgiving
For coin I didn’t need anyway.

I don't care for the gallons of mucus
And the debes of saliva
oozing between the pleading, smiling cries
Of your children-
Why do you care to procreate anyway?
Give me a chance to shut my window!
Keep those slimy, bruised, darkened hands Out!

You don't have to look far
The roundabouts have been invaded
By a dirty army, a swarm
Of undesirable human flies
Miserable beggars by day
Mean muggers by night.

Over there, that mutura chewing bully
that charcoal clothed bitch boy
That pitiful looking girl
A whole family, a whole army!
Not street children but street families!
Something hangs on my boot
like a jigger,
like a monkey
In a jungle of civilization.
Curse the traffic jam!
Curse the traffic jam!
I want to fly over to the other city
where the roads are wider
where the sunshine is brighter
where the pavements are cleaner
where hawking is prohibited
where beggars brush their teeth
where the roundabouts are greener
And the air fresher.

My dear Musso
Take me home
to the other city
Where I belong
The city of the future.