Viewpoints of the long unhoused
(A suite of poems by an unhoused poet and artist) Linda Stevens
Dead ends
Some of us have “dead-ends”
for so-called friends!
When the chips are down
They’re never around
There’s nothing we can do for you
they just say
take it day by day
when we’re going thru such hell
we wonder why everyone’s life
is going so well?
They all have a house
And we’re just a poor church mouse
We’re forced to live a life
of stress and strife
Stress Express
strain drain
energy drain
train wreck
round our neck
On the light side
we never have to ask the landlord
to let the rent ‘slide’
~~
To end the agony
We couldn’t even rent a tent
because $$$ wasn’t heaven sent
what ‘crumbs’ we get are soon spent
Everyone thinks if you live in a car
U-R beyond BIZARRE!
as you drive your worrisome load
slowly down the road
wondering if the train station
without a destination
will be the only SOLUTION
to end agony of street noise pollution
Noise is in every overnight neighborhood
And the hell it puts on our health isn’t good
I’ve really after all this time lost hope
I’m more than at the end of my rope
Only San Francisco can relate
Like no other city!
We have the most unhoused here
And in addition to being perpetually perishing
On the pavement
And croaking curbside style
~
I wonder why
I wonder why o’ why
do they leave us out to die
Even a little housing money
would make our life like honey!
Oh, someone well off, give me
a small house key!
The wealthy elite
want to keep us all in the street!
Well I hope when we get the next quake
their houses will all shake and shake
till they all fall down
in every rich man’s town!
~~
Smug mugs
Every ‘smug-mug’
must wonder what they’d do without a place
they, as they walk by with a mean face
they’re all so ‘high-hat’
If they lost their homes –
what would they think o’ that?
Many of us wish we could curse
those with the trillion $$$ purse!
They don’t care if we can’t even eat
as they smugly cross the street
and go to any expensive restaurant
that they and theirs want!
While we’re never able
To be at a restaurant table
If you can’t flash the cash
you’re forced to live in trash!
It really does suck
to be shit outa luck!
they’re all so ‘high-hat’
If they lost their homes – what would they think o’ that?
Many of us wish we could curse
those with the trillion $$$ purse!
They don’t care if we can’t even eat
as they smugly cross the street
and go to every expensive restaurant
that they and theirs want!
While we’re never able
To be at a restaurant table
if you can’t FLASH the CASH
you’re forced to live in TRASH!
It really does suck
To be shit outa LUCK!
Then they’ll see
what it’s like for those like me
Linda Stevens, homeless for over 30 years because of the affordable housing crisis, is an artist and poet who wants to write more about why the government hasn’t done anything for the unhoused. She asks, “What can we do to get this world to wake up and help the unhoused?" A friend of Linda's said "If we don't fight back, we're all going to die."
