When out in this city, or that one across the bay, I would often think, “These bloody homeless people everywhere all the time…”
Sometimes I still do.
Especially on the train when all I want is peace:
and I want to forget this world isn’t always beautiful,
and that this country is too rich for anyone to be unfed, unwashed, and unsheltered;
and when I’m having a bad day,
and when I am tired;
and…and…and…
Peace on a train in a city?
That’s like a sky blue midnight:
it only happens in remote places where trains are sleds pulled by huskies.
When a woman with dirty hair, ragged nails and old and new shopping bags smiles at me and asks if the next stop is Gateway, I smile and say “Yes.”
Then I think, “I wish I felt safe to hug you”. We could both use a hug.