Every day is a new experience if you look for it! Sometimes I'm able to capture it via a camera... the one I have at the moment! From portraits, to surfers, to fine art and travel, and other subjects in-between, I want to share it with you. Kind regards, James
Wednesday, April 22, 2020
On A Beach Bench
On A Beach Bench
Her toes moving sand,
Beaches empty and bland,
Seat cold and lonely,
Now occupied solely.
Yellow tape and COVID warning,
Cops all about and roving,
She braves the fleeting moment,
With just a bit of resentment.
Something here is missing,
No one is smiling or beaming,
Here she sits in loneliness,
No co-sharing the coziness.
Compelled lock-down now forced,
And social distances reinforced,
The snitch line is buzzing lively,
With sniveling souls abusively.
What is wrong with this solitude,
Observing nature with gratitude,
Not in a negative state,
Hoping the virus won’t dominate.
After the sun sets,
And the darkness onsets,
The beach bench will be vacant,
And her heart will still be defiant.
Labels:
beach,
bench,
Coronavirus,
COVID19,
health,
lock down,
loneliness,
mental,
Oceanside,
pandemic,
phenicie,
pier,
solitude,
sunset
Location:
Oceanside, CA, USA
Monday, April 20, 2020
Lonely and Homeless
“Lonely, I'm Mr. Lonely
I have nobody for my own
Oh, I'm so lonely…..”
I have nobody for my own
Oh, I'm so lonely…..”
That song came to mind as I watched “Birdman,”
a homeless person in the community lean on the cold rail near the beach and stare
out over the Pacific Ocean at a recent sunset before the local police began
giving tickets for watching it from your car! How many sunsets has “Birdman” seen over his
lifetime as he hangs around familiar territory? What was it in his life that led to his predicament?
Mental illness? Addiction?
Adjustment disorders?
He pointed out the rocks below and reminisced
that he began sleeping on them at nights when he was sixteen years old. He felt safe down there, he said. But on this night, he was hoping for a motel
room which the town was giving to some of the community homeless due to the
spread of the COVID19. He wasn’t sure he
would qualify. He could no longer get down to the beach… it was closed.
Homelessness and loneliness go together. His challenge is similar to ours: he worries about food, clothing and shelter. But his worry – and those like him – is daily. Most of us are holding in place, hunkered
down but with food, clean clothing and shelter.
That may change as the government inflicted shutdown continues and people
lose their jobs and livelihoods.
He doesn’t work so the lay-offs and
shuttered businesses aren’t his concern.
Sort of. But still, it is a
dilemma because no one is on the streets to give him a handout. Some of the local restaurants which feed the
local homeless out the back door, are closed.
The social services are limited due to the pandemic and people of good will
are confined to their homes.
The chronic homeless like “Birdman” are
out there on the streets. They may not
be in our neighborhoods but look around, you’ll see them. They aren’t going away; their numbers may
grow as this pandemic lingers.
“Birdman” is just one story out
there.
Friday, April 17, 2020
Bio-Waste
Oh COVID19.. you’ve raised your ugly stink! And guess what, you’ve affected, not just the
respiratory system, but the brains of some of the walking dead! I swear!
The other day on my bike ride I began seeing “bio-waste” along side the
streets in my barrio. Today, I stopped
and decided to capture images of some of it as it begins to be scattered about
by careless people.
The first one was the blue glove on the treaded crosswalk near a
local park where children walk. Who just
takes off your contaminated blue glove, you know, the one used to keep your
cute little pinkies clean and non-contaminated, the one you soiled with your
sweat and flaking skin cells. The one
you turned inside out and threw on the ground where we must walk because you
are too damn lazy to throw it in the garbage or take it home to dispose of it
properly. And by the way, where is the
other one? Are you marking your trail,
like a dog does along the way? Oh, I
know, someone else is supposed to clean up after you.
The other image is a surgical mask caught on a bush along a
sidewalk. Just think how nasty that
covering is. Your wet, smelly, stinky
breath has been sucked in and out of that cloth with each lungful of air you’re
trying to exchange. You’ve touched it to
adjust it to your grimy face: Who knows
where that hand has been! (Ok, maybe you
used the blue glove you threw on the ground.)
It is as nasty as your contaminated cloth bags you have been using to
lug your groceries in and out of the store because you are saving the
planet. Your contaminated mask doesn’t need to be hung
up on a bush… it needs to be in the trash.
It is BIO-WASTE!
Labels:
bio-waste,
blue,
bush,
covering,
COVID19,
crises,
day,
glove,
ground,
hazard,
mask,
outdoor,
phenicie,
Southern California,
surgical,
trash; contaminated,
waste
Location:
Carlsbad, CA, USA
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