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.

Lonely and Homeless

“Lonely, I'm Mr. 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.   

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!