The Stench of Ignorance
By Bee
- 1588 reads
You can smell the homeless,
unwashed and badly dressed -
depressing sights. The druggies
and the layabouts nattering
in gangs, or slouching formless
in doorways, sleeping shamelessly
by day, drunken on steps,
selling magazines -
malingering.
It's hard sometimes, difficult
to avoid their needy gaze;
where to look? Pretend
you never saw a face, heard
a request. You do your best
to walk on past without staring,
wishing they weren't there, knowing
they are there by choice -
avoiding jobs - beggars
belief.
Someone ought to round them up
and send them on their way -
anywhere but here where we are
trying to live a decent life -
make a living, a home, provide for
children - proper people.
Even abroad, you can't enjoy a holiday
without them being there;
their children filthy and hungry.
It makes you sick.
I saw a child of maybe five
lie down in the centre of the street
and go to sleep. I took a photo
to show the folks back home
how the other half live. Shameful!
Something's got to give.
It's one long holiday for those kids -
no school, living off freebies. They'll kid
you that homelessness is loneliness -
that's a lie - there's loads of them -
in towns and parks and streets -
in stations in every nation.
You can find them on the net
in glossy photos (getting paid, no doubt)
or in artistic portraits of black and white.
Posers.
I don't fret about the homeless.
As I've said, there are loads of them,
and only one of me.
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Comments
This is a cracker. Powerful
This is a cracker. Powerful stuff. Makes you question yourself - Do I do that? Do I avoid their gaze? Fob them off? I'm ashamed to say that it depends what mood I'm in.
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Encapsulates the ignorance
Encapsulates the ignorance well, Bee. Things I've heard said so many times myself. People always believe what it suits them to believe. The truth is just too much for them.
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Hi Bee,
Hi Bee,
You seemed to have covered just about all the awful things that people say. Once when we were in Vancouver, one of our friends had taken a "doggie bag" of her left over Vietnamese soup - very spicy and hot - and she gave it to the nearest begger. I wonder how pleased he was.
I think homeless less might be supposed to be homelessness
Jean
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