As I pushed Gabriel in his stroller I read,
“You are not alone”
on a building’s wall. Not three yards away was a man gathering his belongings; Several empty plastic bottles, a massive soiled plastic sheet that appeared to be his home, and a rag for a blanket. His clothes barely hung on him.
Barefoot.
Unruly hair and beard.
He was alone.
I followed him as he walked passed the sign on the wall to the park where he filled his water bottles, then stowed his measly vital belongings under a bush then headed to the dumpster where he opened bags not being choosy he ate whatever scraps he found plus put some in a separate bag for later I assumed.
My thoughts paced with poverty, wealth, mental illness, tangled with guilt, sadness, frustration.
He is alone unnecessarily on a planet of billions, in the City of Lights, near a woman and child while surviving by eating out of a dumpster.
I gave him what I had some money which seemed meaningless in the gravity of his need.
He was still alone as I pushed Gabriel’s stroller to the play area.
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