Sweet charity you’re an addiction

Sweet charity you’re some kind of fiction

Join the hunt for treasure in the charity store

Retail therapy for the relatively poor

It’s all in a good cause they tell us

So why not buy more?

But it don’t fill the hole in your soul

Or seem to keep the wolf from anyone’s door

Sweet charity you’re an addiction

Sweet charity you’re some kind of fiction

Sweet charity

The cry goes out to help the agéd

To feed the poor

To free the cagéd

A mother and father alone in a room

A flickering screen

In a twilight gloom

War and famine scourge the land

Who provides weapons

With a helping hand?

Imperialism changed its cloak

Slaves now hang from a paper rope

Sweet charity you’re an addiction

Sweet charity you’re some kind of fiction

Sweet charity

Sweet charity begins at home

Sorrow in their eyes reflects our own

Money won’t find a cure for the cancer in our soul

While we set ourselves apart

We can never become whole

But if we meet each other’s needs

With a love that’s full

The emptiness recedes

Our souls grow wings

Our hearts are free

And love can take the place of charity

Sweet charity you’re an addiction

Sweet charity you’ve become some kind of fiction

Sweet charity

Sweet charity

Sweet charity

© Felicity Buirski 1998