Do you hear them?
Anthony Simpson

Do you hear them?
The beasts in the back alley.
The Creatures below the concourse
bellowing hums of hunger
symphonies orchestrated on pavement
The clanging and banging of empty stomachs and hollow bones.
creating A most sorrowful song never heard.

Do you hear them?

They’ll do anything to escape nightmares
finding dreams most still when hopping across couches.
Living out of shelters
Becoming a piece of the system.
at peace with the system.
bracing to face the worst.
Their struggle is unending.
Unwavered by tides of time.
winds of change trying their best to float them to new heights.

me to new heights.

I can’t wait to fly.
Finding respite in this respiration freedom provides.
I feel the hard times beginning to pass,
like seasons.
Like fevers never last forever so I can see myself conquering this sickness. Or at least Learning to appreciate the silent quickness of death.

Pain was a cycle and I quickly grappled to the stage of acceptance
A reinvigorated sense of vigor;
A vital force of positivity.

home felt like something I no longer needed.

I made home of these streets.
gutters;
cold cement became my bed.
the sound of sirens my alarm clock.
There’s an alarming sense of freedom that accompanies homelessness.
Though my city was no loving mother.

More my temporary solace.
therapy.

But my tales only mean something if I escape alive.

But the others shouldn’t be forgotten,

and When asked who can help
fingers are pointed.
no one man;
or organization can completely relinquish suffering
an effort to join hands and destroy this problem together must be made.

Because
Futures aren’t created sleeping on the ground.
Only past mistakes are allowed room to repeat

Do you hear them?

Those beasts in the back alley.
Those Creatures below the concourse.
bellowing out hums of hunger
A symphony orchestrated by pavement
By Poverty
Do you dare free them?
save them from uncertainty.
Before the surety of death completely consumes their being And their left with nothing to lose.
But themselves.