The Ministry of Social Affairs

See them sitting in the rain
As the sky is darkening
Three lines of traffic edge past
The ministry of social affairs

At a junction, on the ground
An amputee and a pregnant hound
Sit by young men with withered arms
As if death had already passed

Through every alleyway and left
A million beggars’ silhouettes
Near where the money-changers sit
By their locked glass cabinets

What’s happened? Let’s go and ask
The ministry of social affairs
Near where the money-changers sit
By their locked glass cabinets