INNOCENCE DEFILED

I have here a picture,
A picture drab and drear
A picture filled with misery
A picture with a tear.

Such sorrow and such poverty
Should never be their lot,
Innocent little lives and souls
Deserve not such a plot.

Oh, how my heart cries out for them
Their need and helplessness,
If I could only do a bit
To bring happiness to them.

And wondering back to childhood days
When I was happy and gay
I realize my great fortune,
Not to have their poor dismay.

Could anybody, with a soul
 See such sorrow, see such pain
And not cry out in protest
To see the wrongness and terrible toll.

Oh, if I could only have the chance,
The chance to go to them and say
Come dear little souls, come to me
And live no longer in poverty.

– 1941-1943