The elderly Lady sitting on the grass next to the parking lot,at the Mall
The elderly Lady sitting on the grass next to the parking lot,at the Mall,
guarding her belongings stuffed into some nondescript bag, had that unkempt look that's forcibly shared by homeless people all around the country without access to facilities to enable them to perform the most rudimentary actions to keep themselves clean.
I first saw her as I drove into the parking lot at the Mall,
I was going somewhere in the Mall certainly for nothing critical,my first thought was what is this elderly lady doing on the street,doesn't she have any family,
that cares for her?
Doesn't anyone care?
I glimpsed her again as I started to leave the parking lot to drive home...
That was about 2003 - 2005
My reason for writing this about my reaction during this event, it's been haunting me lately, I have a continuing deep sense of regret at not having done more for this lady,
Its said you're known by the choices you make, I hope there is a disclaimer in there somewhere,for those times you are just not yourself!
my character that day is as alien to me as the far side of the Moon...
I feel like I parked my humanity at the entrance to the parking lot!
I think I picked it up,before I left the parking the lot...!
I'm writing this; 11/2008,the location of the Mall was Brea, California. I was living a few miles from the Mall at the time,over in Anaheim,about 10 miles from Disneyland, which added to the slightly surreal feelings I had most of the time.
She is probably dead by now!
I'm getting to the point where I can barely live with the fact we have so many homeless people forced to live on the street in this country,we're supposed to be better than this!
Lets hurry and spend a few more unaccounted-for hundreds of billion dollars to rebuild the infrastructure in Iraq!!!
I'm writing this 11/2008
Unfortunately,this was a real event in my life!
Hi. Oddly, just moments
Hi. Oddly, just moments before I popped in at Ergo and read your essay here, I wrote a brief 5-line poem that had to do with a man "wandering on the edge of a parking lot."
Yes, the homeless are living right among us. Don't beat yourself up, though, for not having done something at the time. It's apparent that your sensitivity about that moment has turned into a sense of compassion for you. That's only good.
janet
HipJan
Jan
I'd like to read your brief 5-line poem that had to do with a man "wandering on the edge of a parking lot.
--Frank
too often I'm not like that
too often
I'm not like that man
wandering
at the edge of the lot,
hospital gown barely closed
jld
[Frank -- it's not about someone homeless, per se, but i guess it could be]
HipJan -2
Jan, I'd like to see you flesh out this poem,and put it on line.
--Frank
HipJan- New Poem - 5 liner
Jan, I'd like to see you flesh out this poem,and put it on line.
?? p.s. it's a tanka, a form
??
p.s. it's a tanka, a form i've been writing for about 3 years now. :)
HipJan: a tanka
thanks,
I had not known about that,
--Frank
Yup. Tanka is a brief poetic
Yup. Tanka is a brief poetic form in which a sense of mystery is often involved ("dreaming room," where the reader fills in the blanks). So, it's not supposed to be terribly developed, I guess you'd say. But I can see how a scene like the one I witnessed (with the the hospital patient wandering around near the busy road) could lend itself also to a longer, more developed or "fleshed out" free verse type of poem.
Thanks!!
janet