To be poor is to be persecuted

treated with cruel and inhumane

inflictions

denied basic human needs and

punished with out mercy

poverty is given no

dignity or respect

it is viewed as being deliberate

by those who know it not

persecution is a way of life

to the poor

it tramples on hope

it hides in shame

persecution does not know

compassion

it attacks without concern

it has no feelings

the prosecutors believe that

the poor deserve to

be persecuted

because their poverty is of

their own doing

persecutors of poverty

judge and condemn

they see the poor

as the enemy

they seek to punish the poor

for being poor

in order to ensure their own

financial security