When I arrived in West Germany, in Essen, I had a short wait for my friend to pick me up. It had been a long journey with little sleep so I sat on some steps on the street in the late summer sun to wait and observe the new place I found myself in. I was witness a sorry scene…
Essen.
I crouch on kundencentre steps
One hand on my bag
Snooze soaked in sun
Homeless men lay there
Hard lives rest on concrete
Or metal that hums,
Sleeping safer amid crowds.
I cough up lung-fulls,
Cannot sleep like them,
Not yet numb,
Likely never will.
The car will soon whisk me away
It’s thin tint a shield.
Polizei stir them,
Costumed in power they smirk
At these unfortunates
Keep them moving:
Sleep deprivation.
Reeking shoes re-shod,
Chair wheeled in sinew.
A blue jumpsuit,
Eyes downcast, unnoticed,
Earphones insulating,
His humble status,
Sweeps the debris.
Cups and bottles cleared
It’s like they were never here.
Commuters stream like clockwork,
To busy to see.
But I saw, I who sit here still.
Joe Blogs, 2018