How many people move?
Through underground tunnels that reverse the seasons in cold 
and double them in summer's heat
If I were homeless
Would i...
Could i...
Ride the train from end to end
Selling batteries and manicures between stops
Would I stand on platforms asking for change 
to make it cross town when cross town 
only meant another cold stoop to sleep on
Could I bite my tongue at the masses in times square 
who had enough money for trinkets never to be used 
but not enough compassion in their hearts 
not to wrinkle their faces at my pleas for spare change?
Could I be another
Vietnam vet
Deaf
Blind
Crippled
Runaway
Drug addicted
Alcoholic 
Just down on their luck
Back against the wall fighting 
with what little I have left to climb out of the hole
Person on the street and still have the pride to hold my head up 
and remind people that this too can happen to them
I would be a subway
A sub-way
An alternative way
A way to deal with those who fall through the cracks and lose their identity
Without tossing a few wool blankets and annual turkey dinners 
as appeasement for the other 364 nights of starvation and freezing skin
A subway
A substitute way to police sweeps for tourists' sake
And to make the city look presentable
A solution to makes those at shelters treat me as a human being 
and not someone with no past and no future
Would I be more than dirty face children
Men and women asking for help of those passing by into their busy lives
I would be underground
Soon to break the surface...