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Husk life, transient
Drifting from bed to bed, couch to mattress to rolled out sleeping bag
They had everything going for them
Their futures glowing with possibilities
Their hearts recycled for a place to belong
Until it happened
Anxiety to depression, depression to bipolar disorder to a fixed self doubt
The only thing permanent in their lives;
The constant consistency of tar in their lungs
And shivers down their spines
Wandering drifting adapting struggling to survive
LJ Jun 2016
A Friday night of imbued strangers
Streets full of all walks of people
Mostly staggered and tipsy
Haggered and narrow minded
As they sing the only one anthem of
pumping  alcohol inside their veins

A Friday night of rejection and temptation
I couldn't give my cash to enter a joint
Thoroughly rejecting a norm construct
Unhumbled and judgmental
As they sing the only one anthem of
pumping  alcohol inside their veins

A Friday night of inspiration and joy
Where I saw a mirror of myself on the streets
Vagabound souls sat begging for a today
Justice and truth prevails
As they sing the only one anthem of
pumping  alcohol inside their veins

A Friday night of me sat on the ground
At the entrance of a busy closed shop
Begging for the homeless soul as people sneer
The abuse and hate ejected
As they sing the only one anthem of
pumping  alcohol inside their veins

A Friday night of broken promises
When all they do is try to have ******
People set traps of unfriendly gesture
The rotten and pompous society
As they sing the only one anthem of
pumping  alcohol inside their veins

A Friday night of me wooing the drunk
Melodious symphony of "change please"
Negativity beakers but we made money baibe
A reflection of minimalism
As they sing the only one anthem of
pumping  alcohol inside their veins

A Friday night of concluded perception
Their souls touched me, they can go back a time
They try but have no strength within
Sour love was the wound that brought them hassle
As they sing the only one anthem of
pumping  alcohol inside their veins

It's not a Friday night anymore, the dawn smiles
I have a warm home and access to facilities
They have no options and crack is their hope
Police huddles and societal direct abuse
As they sing a song for strangers to listen
For your smile and talk can be the only hope they got
I couldn't go in a club but spend my evening with homeless people begging with them. People were rude and abusive. There was a lot of hate and lack of humanly and sincere gesture. Some people thought there were better than them. The police also came in several times to hassle the homeless people. Yes they use ****** but it is the only hope that have got! Inside they enjoy the delicacies of life. One of the guy I met writes and he shared his work. Some of the words that mused me were "tip top running; A pen flying like a dart"
If you see a homeless person take time and share a piece of your love. However you perceive it. People abuse homeless people that 'go to the job centre' or 'you crack/ heroine user' when on a Friday night they have used a drug; alcohol is a drug even though it is legal.... It is still a drug.
Everyday I walk the gauntlet
down the street full of despair
No one looking up at me
But, they know that I am there
"Mister, can you spare some change"
"I need a coffee and a meal"
They all just sit there begging
I can't know how they feel

Cardboard signs expressing life
Shadows and wratihs along the walk
I try to block out what they say
I don't want to hear them talk
Some are dressed in paupers rags
While others in name brands
Each day I walk the gauntlet
Past their pleas and outstretched hands

"Mister, can you spare some cash?"
"A coffee would be nice"
I donot make eye contact
I choose not to roll the dice
I can't look down and notice them
I can not help them all
I can only walk and wonder
Just how far did they fall?

"Mister, can you help me out?"
""I'm only two bucks short"
Some sit here from five to nine
Then they choose a different port
Last week a voice reached out to me
From a shadow no one cast
I recognized the voice, it was
A person from my past

"Mister, can you spare a bit?"
"I'm just down on my luck"
I stopped and stood and waited as
My very breath was ******
I knew this voice, it's owner was
A man I worked with once
Many, many years ago
Back at old A.F.T. Hunts

I turned and looked upon him
This old man on the side
His eyes looked clear on through me
He wouldn't know me if he tried
He said "I'm only waiting for"
"something else to come along"
"I don't feel right, sitting, begging"
"In a few days I will  be gone"

I reached inside and pulled a bill
five dollars I would give
I knew when he had everything
Now, this is how he lives
I thought before I gave it him
This could easily be me
I knew exactly who'd he'd been
But, he still did not seem to see

I told him to take care and then
I moved on down the street
Not knowing where'd he go to next
If he'd go somewhere warm to eat
I only knew it wasn't far
to reach the gauntlet of despair
But I think from then, I'd never act
As though they were not there.
Racquel Tio Jun 2016
what would you do
if you knew
my next poems
wouldn't be about you?
I doubt that you've written
another word about me
because you disposed of the lust
that was our poetry.
if you want to be reminded of me
only on your wrist
not by my words
and not by my kiss
I don't think there's anything left for me to say.
why should I waste my gift
on an unappreciative boy
who doesn't value
my today?
you were late each and every time
but this is unforgivable
I would try for you for an eternity
but you want to be inhabitable.
(I can't imagine being as comfortable with anyone else but I have to give it a try if you're never coming to my house)
depressed, repressed!!
its 22 degrees and I dont feel blessed
Cold as ice brought to my chest
walking down the middle the street in a daze
walking down the middle of the street hoping for a way
a way out of this mess thats nearly worse as the grave

cold and lonely
No one knows me they only want to own me
or get something from me
drugs, my body, my money, whatever they can bleed
but you do meet allies in the street
And those are the friends you’re glad to meet

Im cold , Im hungry, get me off of the street
Its crazy we still have this in 2016
Im depressed, Im a mess and all I hear is its your own fault
So why should anyone help you, yeah compassion is dead
Every now and then youll meet an angel with no judgement
Who will help you get up and out of the hell you spent

and hell it is
the faces are strangers
none friendly too much most danger
wacth your back and your backpack
watch it or you may never come back
Come back to dull reality where most be

You cant trust many out here
You cant trust any at first
Trust must be verified
still on the street you sleep with one eye
one eye on your money, one on your friend
desperate times create desperate measures, watch him

Im cold , Im hungry, get me off of the street
Its crazy we still have this in 2016
Im depressed, Im a mess and all I hear is its your own fault
So why should anyone help you, yeah compassion is dead
Every now and then youll meet an angel with no judgement
Who will help you get up and out of the hell you spent
Poetic T Jun 2016
It was the house that had stood empty for years,
urban myths that had spread before my years.
Death was meant to have left its mark on those
that once lived, but never did depart with a
heart beat.

Dares were given but never upheld, for fear of
what was left in this home of tortured fears untold.
A sleep over one night from when darkness touched
the rooftop, till dawn had pierced the boarded window
and daylight shone through its holes.

To walk up the path to this dilapidated dwelling,
in darkness and into the blackness of this home.
Boards lose as we sneak in,  will we see light,
will we make it out to  home.

Hours past like minutes, as no one wished to be alone,
the shadows paint pictures in our minds,
terror grips a few as they ask to go home.

Creaking windows floor boards groaning with age,
but like foot stepscoming closer,
heart beats faster now heard clearer than any noise.

I face enters the door, we scream and run,
the dead are coming for us, as we all feverishly run.
out the house we scatter and dart, not knowing
that it was a just a homeless person looking for warmth.

And so the tale continues, an urban myth carries on,
for the tale told of the dead coming for the children
as they did run. But the truth is that it is just a home
that is old and disused, and no blood was spilt by anyone.
GaryFairy Jun 2016
he said that he was homeless
on the other end of a telephone
his momma said she'd send her prayers
but prayers can't build a home

he has always known this
to be lost in a nowhere zone
from his birth there was no one there
and he was left so all alone

he said that he was homeless
she said "well, you're on your own"
it was hard to know that no one cared
only love could build a home
Autumn Whipple May 2016
I walk past the poor every day
The ones that ask me for money
For the change
That I hear jangling in my ears long after I walk away
Money comes to me like a slip of paper
A white page
Stateing times and dates and hours spent
In the pursuit of happiness
Because that's how I feel when I get my wage
Like the hours I spent didn’t just waste away.
The jingle of my work, my age
Is what I pour into that man’s cup
It might be fifty cents
But it’s really six minutes
It might be six minutes
But it’s part of what I earned with my time.
Money is a sense of safety
A paper cushion
In my back pocket
That protects me from them.
A buffer of light green
Silver, copper, gold
That speaks of books
And travel
And new worlds
So I pour my dreams into that man's cup.
Maybe I can share my dream with him
Maybe the money
Will help him
In a way that it helps me
Maybe he will feel safer, warmer,  happier
With my hopes jangling in his pocket.
It may be fifty cents.
But it was still money
My money
That isn’t gaining me anything
Except a lightness in my pocket
And a quiet evaluation of where it can take me.
Money controls me
Just as much as I control it.
As I tip the coins
As they fall
I can hear them
They keep me going for another six minutes, then another six, then another.
That fifty cents,
Screams at me
Power, effort, time.
I want to think that money is good
That the people who get it are
But I see how I spend
How he spends
How she spends
And I think that the dreams that money whispers are for adults
And maybe I have to truly be an adult to know
That it’s not what my money does to me, but what I do
To those without.
My coins get caressed in his hands
***** in a  way
That’s so  different than mine
God bless
He whispers, and I think of the coins
That have that
Exact
phrase stamped on them.
Money should be used in Thomas Jefferson’s say:
To promote happiness in a responsible way
Because the tail of the devil must be dipped in the stuff
The economics of everyday making decisions tough
I can feel the relief it gives me to part with the money
But I calculate the loss
The casual toss
Of the money,
The money
That represents so much
Good
And so much hope.
this was a poem i had to write for AP econ
Daily walks would lead me down

The tourist laden streets

Where people from all walks of life

Would congregate and meet

Buskers, singers, ne'er do wells

Would work throughout the throngs

But in back of Giannis restaurant

Sat an old man sharing songs

He didn't sing so much as talk

His voice was hoarse with age

But a milk box and an orange crate

Were his table, chair and stage

His instrument, an old guitar

Scarred, battle worn and black

His guitar strap was as old as he

An old potato sack

He sat and played to nobody

He just let the words be there

His audience could be a hundred deep

Sometimes it could be air

His music was his lifes blood

It was everything he had

So he shared it with the people

And the people....they were glad

The tourists, stayed away though

They were more attracted by the flair

Of the buskers and the jugglers

Not this man who wasn't there

He never left to join the crowd

And to sell his songs to those

Who really wanted nothing more

Than to hear some manufactured prose

The people who he played to

Were just others from the street

They worked the bars and restaurants

And at night they'd find a seat

In front of this old bluesman

Sitting by his orange box

Playing his guitar by candle light

Taking in his songs and talks

He sang songs from the heart, I guess

About those who'd he'd met

He'd sing about a dozen songs

That would constitue a set

Then he'd open up his silver flask

And ******* two gulps down

"This here's just my medicine"

"My past lives just to drown"

He sang of Truck Stop Beauty Queens

And of Walks out in the park

He sang of people living life

Not just hiding in the dark

He sang of things so real you'd see

Their pictures in your mind

He'd sing of places and of things

That others would not find

But tourists, they just stayed away

Near the buskers blowing fire

While yards away this old man sat

Just like an old town cryer

His audience would leave a bit

of change for their free show

He never asked for anything

For this was his row to ***

At two though when the street shut down

He closed his show down too

But he always had an extra song

A special one for you

His music came from in his heart

He shared it without fear

For once it left his throat it was

A sound that was so dear

The tourists went to hotels

Once the buskers all went home

But he just moved his crate and box

He slept out here alone

He sang his songs of characters

Who helped make us his life

His words were sometimes gentle

While others cut you like a knife

His world was just that orange crate

And his music helped unfurl

The melodies in this mans mind

It helped him share his world

He knew some things and people that

Would take rather than give

He sang about the street people

Because among them he did live

His home was just a cardboard box

Behind Giannis bar

And if you want to see a real good show

You don't have to go far

It's just a little beaten path

Away from tourist fare

Where this little, old, shy

Bluesman sings to hundreds or the air..
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