Home
Do we criminalize being alive? No, no of course not, but what exactly do we do? The homeless are fine, over there. As long as we don't have to see them it's ok. Do check out the link to the anti-homeless architecture below. 😞
A friend of mine and I were discussing tiny home communities. Would you donate space in your yard if you had the room? No? What if we put them all in one spot, well, haven't we done enough of that historically?
Nationally, homelessness continues to grow. According to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, there are estimated to be 554,000 homeless people in the United States. I suspect that is a low estimate. That is about the size of the population of Albuquerque, NM.
The weather was getting nicer. Dottie, my Dalmatian, and I would probably be able to hang out on the corner most of the day today. She needed some more dog food and I could use a real meal too. It was tough when it wasn't the holiday season. Every place that did have meals wouldn't let me bring Dottie in with me. No way I was going to leave her. The religious places always had an agenda. God and I parted ways a long time ago when he took my Mary.
I could go to the food bank and get some chips, maybe a few cans of beans or fruit, but I didn't have anywhere to put food. I'd rather have a burger or some pizza. Yeah, ok, sometimes I wanted a beer instead. It helped me relax in my chateau.
My chateau was some rope, a few tarps, and a really nice blue sleeping bag someone gave me. It worked. I liked camping. It was a free place to sleep. The public housing was a lot of red tape. I had no address, no phone, so how would I know if they had a place for me? How would I pay for it? The shelters were crap because again, they wouldn't let me have my girl with me. My girl was all I had left. Mary was long gone and our kids, well who knows where our kids were nowadays. Our kids could have kids by now.
Dottie was a good girl. When people, especially women would look at me like I was going to hurt them, having Dottie made them feel better. She would always let them pet her. They would smile and sometimes they would give me some money. If they told me the money was for her, I used it to buy her food. I would never take from my Dottie.
My rash was hurting today. The last doctor told me that I had eczema. He gave me some cream, but I ran out. I didn't like going to the clinic, so I just dealt with it. I dealt with a lot of stuff, and that was ok. Most days I didn't feel great. I was usually kind of hungry and I felt a little weak. I think I had that arthritis, but I was better off than my neighbors. Greg couldn't walk. He currently had a wheelchair, but his wheelchairs had been stolen many times. I think Sarah was crazy. She would yell at us and yell at herself and cry, but nobody could help her. We tried.
A few times I tried to do a day labor job, but I was too slow and they made me leave. I tried applying for jobs, but I didn't know how they could reach me. The few times I got jobs by using the phone at the shelter, I got confused and I missed some days. I didn't have an alarm. Sometimes I couldn't sleep most of the night, so I didn't get up in time. They let me go. They always let me go.
I wasn't prepared to deal with today's shit sandwich. Dottie and I had a good day and we were going back to the chateau. I got almost a hundred bucks! The problem was, the chateau was gone. I looked to see if the wind had blown it down, but it was really gone. The good sleeping bag, my dope, and everything else was gone. An officer who looked like he was about twenty years old was standing there.
"Sir, is this where you were camping?"
"I wasn't camping, I live here."
"Are you aware that Denver has an urban camping ban ordinance?"
"Yeah, so are you going to let me stay at your house?"
"No sir, but I'm sure the shelter will take you."
"What about my Dottie?"
"I'm sure that the Dumb Friends League or County Pound can find her a great home. She purebred?"
"She is, and I'm not interested."
"Sir, that's fine, but you need to move along."
"Fuck you!"
Dottie noticed my agitation and snapped at the officer. He called over to another twenty-year-old cop and that one grabbed Dottie while he grabbed me and cuffed me."
"I didn't do anything wrong."
He ignored me. I guess that's how he could do a job like this. He would just pretend that I don't exist. A lot of people liked to not see me. They would look right through me or stare at their phones and avoid eye contact altogether. He led me to the patrol car and I was booked in jail. They took my Dottie. They took my money when they booked me. I had been here before. I would probably be out by morning. I would have a place to sleep and food, so that part was ok.
I saw some friends there. Most of us had been there a few times. It was the grand chateau. I hoped that Greg was ok. Did they take his wheelchair? Hopefully, he was in it and hadn't left it like he sometimes did. I was released the next morning.
They gave me back my clothes and my money. Dottie was at the county pound. I could use the money I had, but I was going to have a hard time getting her back. This time she had gotten aggressive with the officer and there was talk of putting her down. They told me to come back tomorrow.
I didn't want to be out here without her. She was my love. I took some of the money and I got a few drinks. I needed to feel better. I got more drinks. When I walked in the park I all I could see was a tunnel closing in from the corners of my eyes.
I felt pain, but it was numbed a little. Someone was hitting me. I could taste blood. I tried to run, but I couldn't move. He continued to hit me. He kept asking me for money, but I didn't have much left. I told him he could have it. I felt his arms around my neck, and then the blackness from the tunnel closed in and I felt no more pain. Was I finally crazy like Sarah? I saw Mary in her long purple dress that she knew was my favorite. She smiled and waved.
"John, come home."
Comments
Post a Comment