Homeless

Scary

Very.

yes, scary

It is...

whether cataclysmic or as slow grains of sand it stilll slipped through his fingers and that is sad, scary as the other commentors said because it could be anybody.

a sad state I hope I never experience personally...

It won't happen to you. When you keep running fast enough, the detruitus of life cannot catch you. Fear keeps us all running...

Run away from them...is that what you're saying? I usually give to them. I know how hard it is to come to the place to ask another for money!

Featured in the Triple Name Club.

Thanks so much!

Great image to pair with the poem--or did the image inspire it? Very thought provoking, Stephen.

I wrote the poem as a comment on a prompt once. I found the image.
Thanks, Kimberly.

Outside the main building atrium at NEMC is a beautiful garden and an alley that leads to Harrison Street. I often walk this way to Kneeland Street and through Chinatown over to South Station to catch the commuter rail when I haven't the heart to drive. There's a homeless man that sleeps in the grass near St. Matthew's Church. I think it's his "spot" because often his belongings are bundled up nicely even when he's not there. No one seems to touch his things which I find odd. I do wonder his story.

You do wonder what events brought them there. It's the law of the jungle on the street. It's only yours if you can keep it!

Could and can happen to anybody - nicely put - not a nice situation to be at all - thanks for sharing :-)

Thanks for submitting to
The Surreal Circus.

I know there are extenuating circumstances, but your'e right...the tide for us could turn!

Introspective. I've often wondered what if...? I've lost some, but never all. How would I handle that?

Something must happen to wrench your pride from your soul! I haven't "been there, done that"!

Deeply understood, and beautifully expressed. Featured at The Surreal Circus!

Thank you, Shira!

I think the tipping pint into homelessness is often mental illness. But at the moment, the economy is probably just as much to blame.

Thanks for sharing with Gather's Best Writers and Artists.

We use to institutionalize them and care for them. Now we dump them on the street ,and a lot of them can't cope with life now anymore than when they were institutionalized. Sad commentary on our values.

I think more often then not it is many grains of sand and in the end one of those can prove catalytic when the sand shifts.
It's a scary thought and I always think there by the grace of god go I. It's very easy to slip through the cracks in our current society.
Those with mental illness don't stand a chance to re-enter mainstream unless they have support.
The number of children who go homeless and hungry in our country is unfathomable - there is no excuse for it, it means we as a society have failed.

I agree, totally!

This is thoughtful--other man's shoes.

Literally...the homeless are often in another man's shoes! Thanks for the comment, Chris.

This is great and thanks for remembering them... I feel sorry for these people no matter what caused it..

It is pitiful. I hate my initial feeling of condescension...the "get a job" knee-jerk reaction. Glad my empathy kicks in. I just wish it would kick in sooner.

I have a photo in my newspaper scrapbook of a fellow I interviewed and wrote about for the feature section of our local newspaper. He welcomed the interview and the picture.He was a college graduate who fell into a whiskey bottle and in spite of all his family and loved ones trying to help him, he lived in an abandoned home with all his life tacked up on the walls around his chair. Certificates of award, newspaper clippings about his methematic genius, and etc. The local judicicials finally had to come in and carry him out to a halfway home where he lived out his life. The point my story was trying to make was that sometimes an addiction can be stronger than the addicted person's power to overcome it, no matter his genius, or his background. This was just one cause of homelessness and others being homeless is completely out of their blame. Sad all the way around. Much help is needed in this area no matter what the cause.

So true!

Part of my ministry is with the homeless. Off and on since 1968. This past year in particular. We brought one into our home for several months. He was perfect for getting a better perspective of all this. We knew him for years and years...during that time he had lived in tents in the woods and had himself a ministry with the down and out. He was the best dry-waller in our county. He also had Hep.C all those years. When he fell back into alcoholism he eventually wound up in the hospital and then into our home. We went through the whole process of getting every piece of his identity back. And following him through the system was quite an education. And the whole time we were dealing with the homeless community. Plus their care givers.

The homeless have their own society. Most of them are highly intelligent. Just about all of them have mental illness and addiction problems. Fact is...once you are reduced to zero...it takes months (after you get a steady job) to be able to afford getting into an appartment and transportation. There are those who know how to deal with this. But it truly is a bureauocraticc nightmare. No one can make it back without help. Dedicated help. Now days you can do nothing without a photo id. Not even get a photo id.

As my Dad used to say: "It is a great life if you don't weaken."

Never say never I guess... there is so easy to lose the things we take for granted.

It is a sad reality. They are the "collateral damage" of today's society.

truth is it can happen to anybody it did to me