Awaiting Collection

The shoes display themselves in racks,
In lines of oddities without their partner shoe,
All kinds of people enter and to them make tracks,
To survey, try on these leathers of every hue.
The shoes wait not knowing who will want to buy
Unknown to them their future or even the reason why
They will be selected
Or they will be rejected.

In the home the unwanted children wait,
Noses pressed to the windows, eyes staring at the gate,
Where people will come in, come to watch each child,
Try to choose one that won’t turn out too wild,
The children wait, not knowing who will indicate
That they have chosen; which child will they elate?
Will they be selected?
Or will they be rejected?

In the Orphanage, in a poverty stricken land,
The babes lie in cots, stretching in a forlorn line,
They wait, not knowing, unable to understand,
Never receiving love so they do not lie and pine.
They wait for someone who will turn their lives around,
Numbed by their situation, they hardly make a sound.
Will they be selected?
Or will they be rejected?

Shoes walking, worn on feet that love to dance,
Or scuffing in a gutter, their fate is ruled by chance.
A child who goes home to be nurtured all the way,
Or that same child could be living, abused every day.
The babe in arms held safely, brought up with loving care,
Or one day re-abandoned, left to live in despair.
Which will be selected?
And which will be rejected?