Kid Row

Someone painted over the S in Skid Row the other day, and now the place is filling up with
five-year-old winos and toddler bums.
“Hey, buddy, can you spare a pacifier?” asks a tiny tramp in an unchanged diaper.
The church runs a soup and bread line, although they give away fruit rollups and bottles of formula to the needy.
A clean diaper, someone to tie their shoes for them.
All these kids need is a helping hand, some say.
But I’ve seen them gamble it away.
Shooting dice on the pier.
Ride the ladder up, and the chute down.