04 Sep Attempts of a Wannabe Poet in San Francisco – ‘The Man on the Street’

San Francisco has very obviously got a housing problem. Apparently the influx of tech companies in Silicon Valley and San Francisco has resulted in rocketing house prices and increasingly gentrified residential areas. There are many homeless people on the streets who are vulnerable, have mental health problems, suffer from drug addiction and many other circumstances that leave people in a hopeless situation.
Walking past homeless people on the street always offers a poignant moment of reflection; it helps a person to consider their own privilege in relation to others. And yet, (and I am guilty of this too), most of the time we try our hardest to ignore the suffering of the homeless. We walk past, far too busy to stop for even a minute. This poem tries to capture that moment (we’ve all done it) when we walk past people on the street, think about helping (hopefully), and then decide that wherever we’re going or whatever we’re doing is far more important. Or even that we do not want to interact socially with people who are suffering, because the inherent guilt of privilege makes us scurry past trying to avoid eye contact at all costs.

The Man on the Street

The man on the street wanders from place to place,
stalking a sense of security at the end of each endless road.
People look at him with mixed feelings of disgust, shame and pity.

A strange reaction to the suffering of another human being.
Yet it feels so normal and accepted.
Why has it become so unnatural to help a person who cannot help themselves?
Where is the humanity in feigned ignorance and pertinaciously assured innocence?

Everyday we see lost souls looking up at us
from the gutter, or the curb, or another lonely doorstep,
begging a question of our collective conscience.
Do I help? or do I turn my back on destitution?
This decision lies at the crossroads of the ego.
What kind of person do I want to be?

As I ponder existentially, the man asks me if I have any spare change.

I pretend not to notice and walk away whilst coins clink together in my pocket.