Split Sides

Vagrant From a Faraway Land

This was inspired by an encounter I had a few weeks ago. I was out having lunch with my mum and granny in this neighborhood restaurant when this beggar in tattered clothes came to our table to ask for alms. What stood out about him was 1) his eyes were grey/green in color, and 2) he spoke the local dialect to us in a foreign accent, either American or Canadian I can't tell. It was so pitiful to see a man of his stature reduced to such a forlorn existence, living on the streets, so far from home. I wrote this piece imagining the kind of life a man like his had and how he ended up this way.

Oh, dear viewer, please take pity for me.
I don't look like much, and I possess very little.
But I'm all alone and I'm famished
For food, for shelter, for warmth, for decency.
Please, dear viewer, I beseech for thee,
Out of the love you hold within your heart,
Can you please spare me some change?

Oh, dear viewer, please turn your eyes away from me.
I'm ashamed that you must see me like this,
To be content to make my own lunch
Out of a bag of leftover rice and some pineapple juice.
It's better than nothing because I don't have much
And it's natural for people to be stingy around me.
But please, I can't bear to see you look at me like that.
I know how low I've got;
I don't need to know how long I've been this way.

Oh, dear viewer, can you please leave me alone?
Now that you've seen my ramshackle way of living,
Does it amuse you or make you think differently?
I think I've lost it again, or maybe that's just me.
I don't talk sense, much less make sense.
Are you real, or are you a creation
Of my moments of impenetrable lunacy?
I don't know, I don't care, I don't know why.
Whatever, I don't know anymore;
Just get the hell out of my sight.

Oh, dear viewer, I don't know what's happening to me.
I can't even remember how I ended up here.
Am I a victim of my circumstances,
Or is this all the fruit of my undoing?
Am I to blame? Did I want this?
Was I led astray, or was this what I wanted all along?
Jesus, everything's a great big mess;
I really don't know anymore.