It is predawn, dark and mysteriously silent all around you. How do you know? because you’re suddenly awake but still tired so you are also half asleep. Even in this semi conscious state you can’t help but be amazed by the beautiful yet tenuous quiet that currently exist. Then it happens, the occasional night fog begins to gradually lift across the landscape and evaporate into the warming atmosphere and all of nature’s wondrous sounds that must have been trapped in the mist begin to creep on your locale in dazzling but currently annoying dolby clarity. The wind can be heard whistling through the trees, leave crackling from their branches can be heard falling gently to the ground, song birds chirp a vibrant melody above as in your mind you wish for a water hose, and lastly, you can hear the rhythmic tapping of joggers sneakers as the gracefully glide across the pavement, god bless those healthy souls…no really.
In your drowsy, delirium you hope to voice some sort of grievance with management over the noise, but I’ve been told Mother Nature doesn’t hear complaints on this level. Then another wayward thought seeps into your slumbering brain…Maybe all of this is unreal and you are actually dreaming you’re awake but you are actually sound asleep getting your much needed rest. Quickly that thought crashes helplessly into the rocks of left brain logic which is beginning to awake…No!, I need more sleep.
Then one car zips by, that’s no big deal, but goodness if I were offered a job that started that early I would be hesitant to take it and I’m homeless…“I would of course”, then another car and the frequency increases seemingly by the minute. Now it’s a fight against time, because like zombies chasing fresh meat in The Walking Dead, massive hoards of commuters are about to descend on location on their various appointed rounds leaving you no choice but to leave your location.
But you are undaunted with a small amount of time still hopefully on your side you are going to squeeze as much of it as possible into some semblance of REM sleep. You’re hoping to replenish your bodies energy as your internal meter is flickering precariously on three of the needed four bars to be fully recharged. You carefully nestle again into your carefully chosen resting place hoping that if you just tighten the covers over yourself and squeeze your eyes shut the sleep you wish for will soon be yours.
And just as you are about to achieve success and capture the last few moments of sleep before the city’s bustle hits your location the sun makes its appearance. Previously hidden behind structures the sun’s glorious rays shine around and above the urban architecture onto your unprotected position. Try as you might to avoid the light you are helpless and surrender to the life giving solar phenomenon and finally concede that once again a chance at a restful night sleep has hopelessly been lost.
~ Written by “A Voice From the Streets”
Do you have a Street Byte you would like us to post? Send it to Info@ConsiderTheHomeless.org.
Submissions can be from any media: Poetry, Essays, Drawings, Photographs, etc. If you cannot email it to us, let us know your name, and where we can find you, the next time you see us driving around, and we can arrange picking it up, or photographing it for the site.
If you can email it to us, please include your name, how you would like to have your credit written on the site, an email address we can use to contact you, and, if you have one, a phone number. Also, please include if you are currently homeless, how long, or if you were living on the streets in the past, and when you changed that.
If you are uncomfortable about sharing any of the above with us, then worry not. All we really need is the name you want your piece to be credited to.
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