Blues for Days

It was a day like any other, a very early start, a walk mind turning over as it always does. For some a day of new beginnings, excitement growing for others...

Sometimes in the mornings when I walk in the city I would meet a gentle man, he was homeless he was by his own admission an alcoholic. He was an accountant, he was educated, interesting, well traveled. Like any alcoholic giving him money would not have helped, not that he ever asked. We never talked about his drinking had he wanted to talk I would have listened had he wanted help I would have offered but as anyone who knows anyone in this situation they must want help and sadly this gentle man simply liked to drink.

When we met we talked and I would offer to get him some breakfast, hot food and tea. It hurt me to see people judge him, he looked like a hollow man, ravaged by the alcohol that devoured and consumed him. When we would go to get him food more often than not he would not come in choosing to stay in the street for he felt the shop staff stared at him and looked at him like he was dirt they wiped off their shoes. I saw it too.

We were around the same age give or take a year or two although you would never have known it to look at us, he had a family he had lost and he would talk about how he had lost his self respect and self esteem too. He did not use hostels as they scared him and he had been robbed there, this too was hard for me to understand.

I had not seen him for around a week and this morning I was to be told that he had passed away. I have to admit I was numbed by the news, a man I knew to talk to, without really knowing him at all, but I found myself upset thinking of him being alone and I think that hurt more than anything. I suppose now he is at peace, nobody to judge him now. I don't know what will happen, if his family will be found, if they will want to be involved. I hate the thought that at the end of his journey he will have nobody there for him, but perhaps it would not be my place to intrude.

I know in our cities there are so many people apparently homeless many however do not live on the streets, I know it is difficult when we see them not to judge them but if you see them spare a thought for them please for sometimes you may be the only person who does.

The shot tonight doesn't really matter but I hope you enjoy it