Emily has three sleeping bags, a gentle smile and a bike.
She gives advice as drivers park, they give her silver if they like.
Hunched amid her cardboard bedding, next to the machine,
she’ll happily talk to strangers and tell them how she’s been.
That smile is never far away, though it’s clear her life is tough,
Poundland make-up is this season’s look for sleeping rough.
Old ladies keen to help her, drop in nuggets from their pension,
Emily thanks these ‘diamonds’ and revels in the attention.
She tells them of her sad life and hopes they’ll help her out.
But Emily has a secret that she doesn’t like to talk about.
Basking in the warming glow of this pavement attention,
there’s a minor detail that she often fails to mention.
Because life and fate haven’t really abandoned her alone,
she has a roof, a bed, hot food, and a family at home.
So when the car park empties, she clambers to her feet,
gets on her bike and leaves behind the cardboard in the street.
What she’s doing isn’t really wrong,
she’s just playing you a sad old song.
Trying to tug your heartstrings with the sound of her tiny violin.
But when the homeless start to freeze, she’ll blow away on the mildest breeze.