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Cardboard Sonnet
Contributed by
softerware
on
Saturday, 8th November 2014 @ 11:37:24 PM in AEST
Topic:
Lifepoems
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Everyday I see you standing;
On the corner you’re commanding;
Waving cardboard signs before me;
“I am homeless”; don’t ignore me!
Wish to God you weren’t there;
A hope I’ve come to doubt you share.
When you go, there’ll come another;
Same old story; different cover.
You are not, I must admit,
My vision of a "derelict";
I see you write and spell and talk;
Stand all day and climb and walk;
Wave and smile and ride your bike;
Eat your lunch way out of sight.
Yet you live outside the lines;
A social rebel by design!
I wonder by what right you claim;
This corner in your nameless name?
The taxes others pay to keep;
A stage from which you count your sheep.
How much will you make today;
From those who give their hard won pay?
Perhaps you’d be as swift to label;
Were the fates to turn the tables.
Just one time what you would do;
Were I to hold a sign at you?
Stopped here in your intersection;
Stretch my palm in your direction.
“I Know a Man Who Has No Shoes;
Please Will you Help? And God Bless You”
Would you share your daily pan?
Trust me that I knew this man?
I wonder too did you displace;
A lesser man to have this space?
Cause no one panhandles in twos!
(Sharing doesn’t work for you!)
Your stock and trade/'/s a one-way street:
I give, you take---exchange complete.
It’s true, most have more than you do;
But that does not entitle you!
You’ll do alright; but not by me;
I want you off the street you see.
Forgive me if I’m unforgiving;
Begging sir, is not a living.
I will not dishonor you;
By throwing you a bone or two.
There is greatness in your soul;
Half a life that could be whole!
Instead of crumbs to make you stay;
I want to see you walk away!
Cause though we’re different; We’re the same;
Face to face, without a name.
Strangers at a stop sign we;
Five days a week at half past three.
Copyright ©
softerware
... [
2014-11-08 23:37:24]
(Date/Time posted on
site)
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Re: Cardboard Sonnet
(User Rating: 1 )
by hauntedscorp on
Sunday, 9th November 2014 @ 12:00:25 AM AEST
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Your stock and trade's a one-way street:
I give, you take---exchange complete.
What a weighty line!!! Enjoy it in this awesome flowing poem, but it could also hold true for other situations.
Excellent job with this poem, and even tackling this issue.
Where I live, there was a fraudulent panhandler a few years back who got busted. She pretended she was feeble, and old, with disability, etc. She got busted by a camera crew 'cleaning up' at the end of her 'shift' on the corner. Suddenly her handicap was gone, she was picked up in a fancy car, and ultimately found living in a sweet pad complete with huge flat screen tv's. Things got real tough for the true homeless people of my city after that.
Thanks for posting, and I like the author's note too. ;)
~Scorp |
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Re: Cardboard Sonnet
(User Rating: 1 )
by Former_Member on
Sunday, 9th November 2014 @ 12:15:00 AM AEST
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there is a lot of stuff, here I was thinking automatically not of the beggar but of the advertisement, the moving signs,
with the arrows and the hip movements, and they got these jams in their ears, and they are plugged in shaking their you know...
but, I see
The beggar seems to be this plan
This big plan
You know, this beggar plan
What I mean to say,
It's one of those, well it's not my problem
things...
you see it more and more
And wonder why dog gone it
How dare they...
And I think the opposite, knowing the truth
How dare those others who don't do what they
were put on God's green earth to do
And believe me, they are pretty good
And I myself grew up somewhat poor
I remember long ago in the snow I was just a kid
asking for a handout, ten cents so I could call my mom,
I was maybe ten,
This dude, this was in the sixties, this dude says to me,
why I give you any money.. . I remember that,
that much is true...
That curmudgeon thought I was a beggar fool
He really really did
Anyhow, I like the title if this, but not so much the message in the body of the poem, seems obvious
conjecture that is, I was thinking about Mark Twain
and all the hobos before us
And all the real thieves that there really truly are
Peace! |
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Re: Cardboard Sonnet
(User Rating: 1 )
by Former_Member on
Sunday, 9th November 2014 @ 12:20:04 AM AEST
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sorry for all the typo's here, I plainly can't type well in the dark.
What I was trying to point out is that panhandlers ain't the worst issue there is to deal with
My own story was this odd man when I was a kid
who made me feel bad for asking for a dime to call my mom in the middle of winter at night. He was a jerk
and crass and didn't give a monkey's ass for a small little tyke who only wanted to call his mom, he put me into this class of people thinking he knew me
Yeah we know them, those types, those people who want handouts
Peace! |
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Re: Cardboard Sonnet
(User Rating: 1 )
by sanders on
Sunday, 9th November 2014 @ 08:44:09 AM AEST
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This is so true...
nowadays streets are full of these fake beggars...
I especially like your last two stanzas and
the way you have brought the end....very nice. |
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Re: Cardboard Sonnet
(User Rating: 1 )
by Invierno on
Sunday, 9th November 2014 @ 10:53:35 AM AEST
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This could not h ave defined my wife's uncle to any greater degree of clarity. I LOVE it.
Invierno |
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Re: Cardboard Sonnet
(User Rating: 1 )
by deadreckoning1983 on
Sunday, 9th November 2014 @ 11:40:54 PM AEST
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Wow, i mean....just wow.
I have personally become very hardened about homeless people. I know in Louisville, where I lived for a time, that being homeless was just as good or better than having a job. and the homeless "veterans" really ***** me off. there are lots of programs to help veterans.
There is greatness in your soul;
Half a life that could be whole!
Instead of crumbs to make you stay;
I want to see you walk away!
this could be said of many of our lives too. |
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Re: Cardboard Sonnet
(User Rating: 1 )
by ladyfawn on
Monday, 10th November 2014 @ 10:32:05 AM AEST
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beautifully penned,
hugs n' love nessa |
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Re: Cardboard Sonnet
(User Rating: 1 )
by Former_Member on
Monday, 10th November 2014 @ 08:25:49 PM AEST
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| This is so well written and poetic, but I find it cruel. Some folk end up at the bottom, and that is where they often stay. let me tell you about one such as you write about: he sat and never asked a penny, in all weathers. I knew he was dead when i saw the flowers beside his old pitch. Life doesn't deal everyone a fair hand. |
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Re: Cardboard Sonnet
(User Rating: 1 )
by RussellReinhardt on
Tuesday, 11th November 2014 @ 03:59:30 PM AEST
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Hello Soft
The poem very well written. Now by no means am I judging your opinion. Yes there are people out there that are running a scam, however there are people out there that truly need help. The word tells us there will always be poor people and we that have must help. It also says, charity starts at home. Now this is just how I see and understand it. We take care of our home first and if we have extra then we help outside our home. So when we do help others and they are scamming us then it is on there book not ours. We have done what God expects of us. None the less a good write that makes one think. I trust you understand how I feel on this subject. God bless
Greetings
Rus |
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Re: Cardboard Sonnet
(User Rating: 1 )
by Former_Member on
Wednesday, 12th November 2014 @ 09:24:20 PM AEST
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God sent an angel to see what you would do.
It's a tough subject. do I give? Is he really in need or is he one who goes home at night in a better car than me and a better home than me? Whatever the case, this is a greatly penned poem. You've a knack for that whole flow thing goin' on!
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Re: Cardboard Sonnet
(User Rating: 1 )
by Pogivic on
Tuesday, 7th April 2015 @ 08:12:21 PM AEST
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| Such a well written poem with a lot of thought provoking questions I an sure we all ask at times. I found myself having to walk past so many panhandlers in the Philippines. Where I lived in Tacloban I walked daily to the market or the waterfront and I had learned to ignore most beggars but Once I stopped and talked to a man who had just one leg. His story was so sad I ended up giving him 20 paseos' every time I walked past him He was so grateful but I was only there for only ten months before moving to another province. I still think of that man and how grateful he was. |
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Re: Cardboard Sonnet
(User Rating: 1 )
by Pogivic on
Tuesday, 7th April 2015 @ 08:12:59 PM AEST
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a Message)
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| Such a well written poem with a lot of thought provoking questions I an sure we all ask at times. I found myself having to walk past so many panhandlers in the Philippines. Where I lived in Tacloban I walked daily to the market or the waterfront and I had learned to ignore most beggars but Once I stopped and talked to a man who had just one leg. His story was so sad I ended up giving him 20 paseos' every time I walked past him He was so grateful but I was only there for only ten months before moving to another province. I still think of that man and how grateful he was. |
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