I live 30 minutes west of a small city of 150,000 people. Walking down the main drag, called “Princess Street”, I remember my previous life in Toronto, my home for over 30 years.
It is early twilight on a November afternoon. I am in town to take a ‘haiku stroll’ for this week’s Sense of Place writing event. The air is biting cold. Not fully prepared, I promise myself to wear warmer gloves and a scarf next time.
In the descending dusk I feel caught in a void between the warmth of daylight and the glitter of night lighting. I beg the street lamps to turn on. After a few blocks I sigh with relief as they do, but there is still a lackluster feel to this outing. Is it me or the people around me?
Cold dusk
eyes barely lift
along the sidewalk
In the summer, baskets of flowers liven up the street but today the only signs of vegetation are barren trees.
desolate
lone sapling
by the curb
This small city is not spared from homelessness, a worse predicament here than in a larger city with more services, I imagine. I marvel at how people are panhandling with no blankets or chairs.
hands clench
seated on frozen cement
by her cardboard sign
My walk is a short “U” down towards the lake and up again to my target, a warm coffee shop.
:
©️2018 Ontheland
Beautifully written sentiment in your haibun Janice. Homelessness, so much of it here too. In the cold weather I wonder how they survive. I go out all bundled up to the point where I can hardly move, yet they sit on “cold cement” and sleep in carboard boxes or the like. Such is life around us. 😢
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It is cruel for some. In Toronto I remember more sleeping bags and heat grates. It looked possible if not desirable. The other night what I saw here seemed almost unbelievable.
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😢
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Reblogged this on Frank J. Tassone and commented:
#Haiku Happenings #6: Janice’s latest #haibun!
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Thank you for the reblog Frank 🙂
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😇
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This is very moving, Janice, the sense of loneliness and despair and sadness, yours, theirs, and the very environment, all mix together in your words.
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Yes there was a bleak mix of feelings that day. I went for a second Princess street stroll today…a slightly different mix but there were still people panhandling on every block for a stretch. I’ll want to take some loose change next time.
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Love it. Thank you. It is indeed a sad season in which to be living on the streets.
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Thank you Roger. It is especially dismal to see people out in the cold.
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I know. I saw people sleeping on the gratings in Toronto outside the Royal York Hotel (1993). I was at a conference. Felt terrible. I have written on this. Madrid also. And Oaxaca.Now in |Freddy, we are beginning to see the same thing. Horrible.
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Brava… 😎🥀🥀🥀🥀
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Thank you, Dorna.
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That’s very evocative. I really got a sense of place from it. Your haiku really add to the piece and give it an immediacy. I pity the homeless people in the cold Canadian winter – what a terrible way to live.
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Thank you, Suzanne. In Toronto some stay outside all night though workers circulate trying to invite people inside and handing out warm clothes and sleeping bags. No getting around it though…it shouldn’t be happening.
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