Truth in an Alleyway

I saw her in an alley the other day
Her tattered coat and mud-strangled boots
She pulled me in with earth-piercing eyes but I looked away
Ashamed to engage that dangerous renegade.

Condemned because she would not sell herself
In a world where everyone and everything has a price and values rise and fall
Not flexible enough for the current fads of markets, genocide and self-gratification
Going forward she was of little utility.

But we could not do without her
So in her place a stream of recycled frauds tailored by avarice and self-deception
To affirm a billion kingdoms of guilt-free stone, glass and vacant reverie
No place for her and everything for me.