He's singing a song with his eyes
And everyone can hear it

People sit with their heads down
Facing the red light
Ignoring the loudest sound a human can hear
Silence

Trying to ignore the loudest vision we see
The man on the median
Without a home

And he's singing a song with his eyes
And everyone can hear it

The red light has paused us
Forcing us to stop
Some of us try to continue our motion
Through our phones or radio
But something has stopped

Some of us are angry
Feeling that he’s taking advantage of the pause
Filling the pause
And the silence
With a picture
Framed by our window
That we didn’t ask for
But he exists whether we see him or not

The column of traffic
Before the left turn
Is filled with empathy, resentment, and judgment
all at once
The feelings running into each other
Like waves of water
Sloshing between the cars

“Being homeless is a choice”
“He didn’t ask to be homeless”

And he's singing a song with his eyes
And everyone can hear it

He used to have a home
He lived in wealth

And sitting in one of the cars before the red light
Is a man that used to be without a home

But the man on the median is happier somehow
Not all men on medians are happy
But somehow
He is
How strange

He disturbs us because he is one of us
A fellow human
Living in a way we aren’t


~ JL