‘Tis the Season

Once upon a time Americans went traveling and came back
with stories of beggars , some crawling at the edge of traffic,
some lame and sick slumped like sacks on sad sidewalks,
forlorn worn out women mournfully clutching sick babies
drugged to effect the most pitiful presentation of poverty.

A long way from Mumbai and Cuzco and Zanzibar
beggars stand at intersections holding homemade signs
claiming most need of help and better claim than others
for compassion please in the form of money not food.
I don’t know what to make of it or what to do about it.

As I hurry my bicycle past them trying not to look at their eyes
or in my car I come to a full stop and must look directly at them
or awkwardly look away as if trying to see someone I may know,
the full weight of childhood Sunday School settles on me
stirring my soul to remember Bible stories about feeding lambs.

These are not lambs, and I live comfortably in the land of plenty.
The presidential candidates aren’t suggesting solutions
about homelessness except to suggest not subtly
that anybody without whatever just isn’t trying hard enough.

Homeless on the waterfront in San Diego

Begging in Mumbai

Homeless in Barcelona

Homeless in Paris... camping on the Seine

A young girl sent begging... In St. Petersburg, Russia