at a crosswalk light
lugging their backpacks
scaling the glacier
⛺️
Category: Homeless
945
cold rain, cold night
where do birds sleep
where do homeless go
478
a stray on my street
let’s wish him food and shelter
last night of the year
六十六
460
new house on the road
hammers and saws all day long
squirrels can’t afford here
六十六
159
peaches have come back
the homeless share them with me
outside our market
Safeway 5/12/15
woman and toddler
sit by Safeway… scrawled cardboard
their eyes eat my heart
Laundry 4/26/15
alone this winter
in a launderette for warmth
other people’s wash
El Camino 3/23/15
Man at the roadside
Holding up a cardboard sign
Bearing his haiku
Feral Haiku
Cat in the headlights
Scuds beneath a parked car;
Mine are warm and safe.
Elena Klein (1913-2004)
I did not attend her memorial,
my heart’s image is enough:
a gardener with her chinaberry tree,
a poet writing for great-grand-kids,
soul of a many gabled house
waiting for friends to come for tea.
I just didn’t want to go; too fat
for my decent slacks, too ornery
for any show of piety. But now
I’ll tell about one night at our
Not Yet Dead Poets’ Society.
A man had finished an epic rant
of homelessness and addiction.
Elena reaches across the table,
slowly moves her arms to catch
his hands in hers. Eyes shut,
she bows deeply, gripping him,
clutching him in mute,
divine apology.
Down and Out in Gotham
How can anyone be homeless?
You’re a citizen of this country
You’re a resident of this state
Dweller of this city, a neighbour
Now competing with strays
To sit on a bit of sidewalk
And watch the busy on parade.
Home for the Homeless
San Francisco’s best
To be an unclaimed corpse.
Every six months or so
A chartered excursion boat
Sails off with orphans of ash
Waifs of bone, blind and dumb,
To where gulls and buoys peal
Welcome welcome welcome!
Cat Nap Revue 