The Poverty Business: Will there be no end to our mission?

And recently, from BusinessWeek, confirmation that charity will never be able to compete with systemic forces driving the needs. Say as much as we want about fighting root causes, these weeds run deep and it takes more than food pantries and employment training programs to uproot them.

The Poverty Business: Inside U.S. companies' audacious drive to extract more profits from the nation's working poor

my breath is caught in this wind,
so slow, so staggered --

what love is this that thrives on
nickels and dimes, the castaways of compassion?

there is no charity on this street,
only mild concern for visibly struggling strangers,

a desire to keep the fences firm and tall,
a yearning for no memory of pain.