Heartbroken

by Skald

My gut churns when I see him, my chest tightens, my face turns downcast.

I cant ignore him. I cant dismiss him.

He is a homeless man in the Banglumpoo section of Bangkok. He wears only a tattered pair of shorts. He sleeps directly on the sidewalk... no pad, no cover. He has some sort of debilitating condition that makes walking difficult. He cannot straighten his legs completely, so he shuffles/lopes along the sidewalk.

He is covered in dirt. I pass him many times... usually he is passed out on a sidewalk.

When I see him, Im overwhelmed by feelings of helplessness. For brief moments I try to imagine his day to day life. I try to imagine myself in his position. Its a painful exercise. I know, with complete surety, that I could not survive it.

Strip away the politics, the rhetoric, the statistics... and this is what homelessness and poverty is: horrible suffering. I have no immediate solution.

I feel helpless and overwhelmed by this mans condition.... and all those like him.

.....