"Change please"

"Change please" he cries
the man by the side
of the street that we walk down
at quarter past five

Gone are the words
instead is a drawl
"Change please" he cries
his harrowing call

Our feet walk on past
each morning the same
eyes averted, head down
to hide our own shame

The best of us reach
into pockets too deep
to carry small change
for the man in the street

And he cries "Change please"
the man in the street
not often enough
we drop coins at his feet

I gave him a fiver
we proudly cry
one day in a hundred
when we've walked on by

With collar pulled up
against the cold weather
we move as one body
we're travelling together

But the man in the street
as if frozen in time
watches us searching
for things we can't find

Does he want us to see him
crying out with despair
"Change please" we ignore him
each day that he's there

Then one day all's quiet
as we come to his spot
his infected nest
his decay and his rot

But no cry pulls through
the rain and the weather
for there was a human
under the beggar

The ice and the snow
pervaded his bones
"Change please" but each day
we ignored his moans

He died in the night
though he's still right there
as we march on past
there's no cry on the air

We thought we were helping
but each day we lied
he asked us to change
we dropped coins at his side