Less Home
The homeless
That could be me one day
That in my scared
Times
I do think of this
Hard to believe
The photographs of these
Are romantic
Depictions
Sometimes inside
Shelters
Sometimes with food
Also clothed
Sometimes with pets
Or studies in textures
Impressive
Even beautiful
But there’s the real
In the city
Or the town
In the square of some collection
Of us
Otherwise
Invested
And here she is
And he
And collectively they are given things
And also physically moved
When the homed
Are tired of them
Officially
Anxietous
Over values
Of properties
And landmarks
And how
Frankly
The homeless look
Against all style
And smell
Against all savory
Eating places
Sometimes they get boxes
As they find them
Mostly
Sometimes they want
To claim their own
Out of the nothingness
They own
Sometimes we try to find them
And I wonder if
Anyone would look for me
And what if I were found
And would I want
To be
So much lack of anything
Except for fullnesses
Of fear
Of shoes and socks
And clothes
Against the weather
And the weather
Fear of the next hour
Over what
To do
When not worrying
Over food and
Drink
And where to shower
And this could be me
Though for now
I can’t appreciate
Development
Or is it
Evolution
To this state
And any consideration
Of the length of time
To live this way
Until hopeless repetition
Becomes only
The hopeless
C L Couch
I wrote of home and then it seemed unfair not to consider homelessness; maybe the homely (classic meaning) part will be posted another time.
Photo by Barb McMahon on Unsplash
Portland Oregon
I have family there I
Think I lost four more
C L Couch
Four homeless people die of exposure in Portland in first 10 days of 2017
The Last Insult
A homeless man is shot down
It happened in L.A.
It happens anywhere
I say man until women are
Shot down, too
Having lost
Family, work, wardrobe
One’s own place to stay
Or say
Reliance on water and food
The basics long gone
Finally, a move in desperation
Imprudent, maybe
Criminal
But what’s left
And the last thing—there
Was one thing—is lost
Spirit ascends, offers an
Amish hope
Confidence mitigated
By designed ignorance of
Providence
Without doubt, nothing more
To lose here
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