Don’t Judge

Have you lived in the shoes of the homeless?
Have you lived in the shoes of the poor?
Did you grow up a hungry child
Begging for food you couldn’t afford?

Do you go to school embarrassed?
Did you go to school sad,
Hoping your classmates didn’t notice
All the clothes you didn’t have?

Did you feel that you were mistreated?
Did you feel that life’s unfair?
Did you feel like all the others in world
Really didn’t care?

Poverty is a cycle,
That isn’t easy to end
It’s a problem that each and every one of us
Need to understand

How do you pick yourself up
And fight through all the pain?
How do you work hard in school
When your life is full of rain?

For all those people out there
Who think that welfare is a joke
Know that it is something small
That should give us all some hope.

People aren’t living wealthy lives
On the governments dime
Their living life pretty low
Below the poverty line

Don’t judge those in the cycle
Who try hard to escape
Don’t blame those who don’t know better
For all of life’s mistakes.

If you’re parents loved you
If they weren’t addicted to cocaine
If they weren’t abusive
If they weren’t ashamed

If they treated you with kindness
If they were smart enough to help you succeed
If they were able to send you to college
If you were able to follow their lead

You have a better life than most
That are living here today
So stop and think before you speak
About what you’re going to say

Don’t judge those in the cycle
Who try hard to escape
Don’t blame those who don’t know better
For all of life’s mistakes.