I feel free

Poem written by Ashley Grant, for an assignment in a documentary photojournalism class at California State University, Northridge, 2014.

 

Here I sit beside you

With dirty palms and withered clothes.

This bench that we both share is small,

For that I am sorry.

I have no where else to reside, but here.

Or beneath the freeway across town.

I am homeless, yes that’s true

But you should respect me, as I will respect you.

I was wealthy once before.

College educated and happily married

I thought I had the world all figured out.

But life hits you hard

And you can be thrown off your path.

Before I knew it, 30 years at a large company

Had disappeared and I was pushed to the side.

No warning, no back up plan.

There were no drugs or alcohol to blame

I just was a simple man trying to survive.

Bills soon consumed me and

My wife and I began to fight almost every second of the day.

Life was almost unbearable.

I was in a constant uphill battle with myself.

Although I had all the qualifications, jobs were scarce.

With no money coming in I knew my life would further change.

My home was taken by the IRS and my wife soon left me after.

She needed more she said.

I wanted that for her.

With nothing to hold onto

I allowed myself to be taken by the streets.

Six years have come and gone,

And I sit beside you now.

Money is a hell of a thing.

It can allow you to have it all

or in the end leave you high and dry.

I am homeless, yes that’s true.

But I am alive and although I now have nothing,

Only that cart across the way.

Somehow I feel like I’m better off that way.

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