Authors, Writers, Publishers, and Book Readers

Hard Times (A Borrowed Title from Charles Dickens)

In rememberance of Charles Dickens' upcoming anniversary.

His golden years

spent on a bench at the station.

Tattered coat

wrapped tightly against the chilly wind.

The homeless shelter is full tonight;

perhaps, better luck on the morrow.

Hard times linger

in the ingenuous crisis of a jungle market.

Wretched faces of children staring from workhouses

Forlorn faces of same in homeless shelters

Innocent victims of Hard Times.

Debtors’ prisons have long since passed away

Collection agencies are here to stay

A different veneer for these hard times.

From his bitter slumber awakens the derelict

by the noise of marching passengers

in the early morning light.

He rouses, shamefaced,

and wobbles to the opening mall across the station.

The indoor warmth, providing respite.

What changes awaits him

if Charles Dickens could walk the earth once more.

A world beyond his imagination he’d see;

but the heroes of his books, he’d recognize.

Haunted eyes staring from hopeless faces

Shoulders worn by heavy burden

Bowed heads born of shame--

the shame of job loss in Hard Times.

Coketown—

trudging at the mills all day long--

Wearied bodies bent over machines.

The faces of the poor have not altered

“Hard Times in This time”

Hard Times linger in our time.

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Permalink Reply by Cleveland W. Gibson on February 7, 2012 at 11:16am

You've captured that elusive something Dickens wanted to pass on as a legacy. He had poverty in mind and those 'hard times' he suffered in a factory blacking up boots. Hard work indeed. Today we have the unions but the work around the world , the hard work , is still there. Slum dogs pick out a living.Clean water to drink and a place to rest a head at night, that's what most poor folk need and want.

How to give it to them? How to get rid of that tag: 'Hard Times?'