Sweet Charity
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