Snow dust the sidewalks
People laugh as they walk
Towards the unknown
their warm breaths
fogging the air
Their hands
wrapped around a steaming cup
They are content.

He shivers.
Pulling the thin
scraps of cloth
closer to him.
Waiting for the sound.
That heavenly sound.

Across from him,
she sits,
still
moment before
her last breaths having
gone unnoticed by the crowd
except by him.
Not wanting to suffer
that same fate raises his voice

"Please spare some change?"
The endless lines
Repeated at each passerby
Some drop him a few dimes,
quarters occasionally,
loonies and toonies are scarce

But it's enough
by enough it means
Enough to buy some food
to last the day.

but it's not enough,
by not enough it means
it will not help him survive
the cold
harsh
days to come


Dec 15
HUGE snowstorm tears tree out of the ground!!
The headlines exclaim boldly,
The people read the news
As they pass yet another still body
on this winter morning.
"He's only sleeping"
They think as they pass,
It wasn't the first still body
the crowd had passed this morning
it wasn't the first body
covered in thin scraps of cloth

Did you know there are more than 500,000 homeless people in America?
A quarter of them children.
Boston has one of the highest homeless populations in this country.
1 in 8 Americans live on an income that put them at risk for hunger.
Do you know how hard it is out there? Do you know how easy it is to be homeless? And how people look at them with shameful eyes?
You're 47 and you just got fired from your job cause it's overstuffed you missed rent for two months, momma isn't gonna help you! You don't have any money in your savings because you had to pay off college loans and debt.
You're 19 and you get pregnant and you want the baby, you want to have this beautiful child. But your boyfriend leaves you and your parents won't accept it.
Life doesn't give a **** what your situation is, this world doesn't give a **** how you got homeless because if you're homeless you're seen as less than. Why are you seen as less than? I bet some of those people know more than you or I or he or she do. I bet they can offer you words that would blow your mind. And because they got fired, or made a mistake that they couldn't come back from we look at them and turn our heads as we walk by them, we donate money at Christmas to show we "cared but do we really?
Yesterday at my work we threw away 16 pounds of food waste and I seriously felt some type of pain ring through my body
Because I knew that could've fed ONE homeless person for weeks or multiple homeless people for the evening.
I just wanted to take it and stuff it into one of our **** salad bowls and go dish it out to anyone I saw who needed it.
Can you imagine not being able to eat for days because you can't even afford the $1.00 honey buns in the starz markets?
And people pretend they don't hear you when you ask them to help with food.
Why do we look at these people, who just want food, who just want warmth, and need a home, as if they're someone who ruined our country.
Rather then giving them the a look of embarrassment, give them a look of kindness.

on the street corner
waiting for a body to come along
'oh, jesus, oh, lord'
the man just wants a hug

throw a man a home
spare his dog a bone

cough of a smoker
chest with a wheeze
one sits in a resturant
while anothers begs on his knees
'please lord, oh please'

ignorance a bliss
public sphere bubble
'look man'
'i don't want no trouble'

'could i trouble you for a penny'
share one of your many
what's a woman begging for
judgement decides she is a *****

a million to one
help out the addict of a son
and i ask you sir
while you moan and groan in your animal fur
'are we all human, only divided by materials'

Where one could only place a thought on  rest,
but for a moment, reflections that are addressed  
on eyelids needing the collection of bedtime unrest.

My blankets are woven in comas of oppression
as when my eyes are entombed and depressed.
No one realizes that when they pass this dispossessed
huddle, lives life never given a moment as were oppressed.

For below this perceived cluster of a homeless man dressed,
is the dignity of man once upon a time blessed.
But I fell or stumbled, now my body slumbers on a headrest.
All that others see is a robin who lost his dignified vest.

Today I went to London Town
A city famed for its wealth and crown
But the reality will make you frown

There are no paths of gold here to be found
But a sea of homelessness to drown
Occasionally a passer-by bends down
Chucking a coin in to a hat or cup
As though they’d pick something dodgy up

If they placed it in their hand
But most walk by in a dreamland
Pretending they don’t even exist
Crossing the street on a pivotal twist
A quick pirouette, ensures an inconvenient truth is missed

Today I went to a matinee
A luxury, a theatre play
I traveled the train without a worry to pay
Simply swiped my card the contactless way

Indulged in a big meal out
For fifty quid it was a reasonable shout
While across the road is this girl hanging about
And her dogs called Buster, I found out

I gave her some change and the time of day
Asked if I could stroke her dog, she said I may
On the girls lap Buster lay
Eyes wide, grateful for love I sent his way

She needed twenty two pounds
For a full week stay at the shelters grounds
But the funds she said she never found

“When I come back I’ll bring you a drink”
She asked for hot chocolate
I gladly agreed
I called the Salvation Army where she said she’d be received
Providing she had the money to leave

My call was in a queue but nobody picked up
I wanted to pay so she and Buster could snuggle up
Somewhere warm, even for just a week
So her ankle could heel and they’d get some sleep

I walked to the corner where I promised that hot drink
I looked around, took a double blink
Buster and his owner where gone, before I had time to think

Now I’m home in bed, heating on
Hoping they are somewhere warm
Praying that they gained some profit
I never delivered the promised hot chocolate

You’d rather be on those streets
Trying to hustle something to eat

You blame the womb you came from
When all along it’s you that’s acting dumb

Your seed needs to be watered
You should know how it feels to be dried out

Your roots try to revive you
But you trampled those too

I want to shake you like an earthquake
But you prove time after time that it’s just a waste.

How hungry have you been?
I didn't hear it then
Soft sweat and dry tears on
Pillow cases of warm hold and I
Took flight in my mind
Cause some things you can't decide
Eatting with all my might
Sleeping with open eyes
Until I was shot out of the sky
How hungry have you been?