Homeless Girl

Earlier this week as I drove along through the shopping plaza parking lot on my way to work I passed a woman and a little girl holding a cardboard sign. I was almost past them when I glimpsed them and I couldn’t see what their sign said. It’s unusual to see such a sight in the rather upscale area where I live and work, so after I parked I hiked across the parking lot to find out why they were there.

They were gone!

In the less than a minute it took me to park and start walking back in their direction they had vanished. I couldn’t remember exactly where I had seen them. I glanced at the parked cars and in all directions, but they were gone. When I couldn’t find anyone else who had seen them, I began to wonder if I’d imagined them.

Later in the week when I got together with my song-writing partner, we decided to work on a happy song. Our session didn’t go exactly as we planned and we were both frustrated with our inability to write “happy.” I wonder if maybe we’ve seen too much of life.

I came home and wrote the start of lyrics to a decidedly less than happy song or maybe it’s just a poem, but so far it goes like this:

Homeless Girl Song (A Work in Progess)

I wish I could just disappear
I hope no one I know sees me here

But mommy says this is the only way we’ll eat
And tonight we’ll need a place to sleep

I stand by her side and hold the sign
She keeps telling me everything will be fine

I don’t believe her she’s said that before
Good thing for her I’m not keeping score

A man in a truck comes over to talk
He and my mom go for a short walk

He says something to her then gestures at me
She shakes her head sadly and then the man leaves
***

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