The Infamous Lower East Side of Vancouver
The largest open market of heroin and cocaine in the developed
world
What is this place? You may ask as you drive through on your way
to the shopping district
Are they filming a movie here? Are those
actors?
In a way, yes, we are actors- Puppets
really
We are the forgotten who fell through the cracks you left in the
system
A system built to protect life - A system that was
imperfect
And lives are forgotten with that
flaw
Lost, forgotten,
ignored
So we wander in a cloud of
fear
Fear at what we are - At what we are told we
are
How did we arrive here?
When a child falls through the cracks of the system
She lands far far below the real
world
In a land of lost dreams - A land where everyone is accepted
Only if they have no soul
left
How did they lose their
soul?
It was stolen as a young
child
Fell from her body with the tears she
shed
Expelled in a cloud with every terrified
breath
Pummelled out of her with every beating she
endured
Until there was nothing left but an empty
body
That stumbled, looking for help in a system meant to
protect
Rather it labelled – Incorrigible -
Habitual
BAD
When she stumbled she fell - When she fell she
landed
Where she landed nobody knows - Until it is too
late
To save her
Or is it?
This child is now an adult - Maybe in her late twenties or
thirties
She makes her life the way it is - Or does
she?
Did she choose to be here? Or did she fall
accidentally?
When a child falls and bumps their
knee
Someone picks her up and kisses it
better’
Can someone pick me up and kiss me
better?
Tell me that I am not a bad
person
I am me and it is
okay to be me
I don’t know how to communicate with
you
When a child does not know how to
talk
We teach it language
When a child does not know how to fight
fair
We must teach that
child
When a child is still a child hiding in an adult
body
We must teach that child it is okay to come
out
It is okay to show her true
self
Play and laugh
And be herself
The largest open market of heroin and cocaine in the developed
world
What is this place? You may ask as you drive through on your way
to the shopping district
Are they filming a movie here? Are those
actors?
In a way, yes, we are actors- Puppets
really
We are the forgotten who fell through the cracks you left in the
system
A system built to protect life - A system that was
imperfect
And lives are forgotten with that
flaw
Lost, forgotten,
ignored
So we wander in a cloud of
fear
Fear at what we are - At what we are told we
are
How did we arrive here?
When a child falls through the cracks of the system
She lands far far below the real
world
In a land of lost dreams - A land where everyone is accepted
Only if they have no soul
left
How did they lose their
soul?
It was stolen as a young
child
Fell from her body with the tears she
shed
Expelled in a cloud with every terrified
breath
Pummelled out of her with every beating she
endured
Until there was nothing left but an empty
body
That stumbled, looking for help in a system meant to
protect
Rather it labelled – Incorrigible -
Habitual
BAD
When she stumbled she fell - When she fell she
landed
Where she landed nobody knows - Until it is too
late
To save her
Or is it?
This child is now an adult - Maybe in her late twenties or
thirties
She makes her life the way it is - Or does
she?
Did she choose to be here? Or did she fall
accidentally?
When a child falls and bumps their
knee
Someone picks her up and kisses it
better’
Can someone pick me up and kiss me
better?
Tell me that I am not a bad
person
I am me and it is
okay to be me
I don’t know how to communicate with
you
When a child does not know how to
talk
We teach it language
When a child does not know how to fight
fair
We must teach that
child
When a child is still a child hiding in an adult
body
We must teach that child it is okay to come
out
It is okay to show her true
self
Play and laugh
And be herself