FAILURE

October 12, 2025

My name is Jon.
I live nowhere
And everywhere.
Today I sit
On the sidewalk
Learning against the fence.
Waiting for…
I don’t know what.
My name is Jane.
I live nowhere
And everywhere.
Today I sit
On the sidewalk
Learning against the fence.
Waiting for…
I don’t know what.
Others are here,
Folks like us.
Nowhere to go.
Waiting.
Just waiting.
We don’t know why.
Here we are all the same
Hopeless.
You look at me when you drive by.
“Folks like them, get a job!”
“Don’t bother to help,
It’s hopeless.”
And I know that you say it.

This Photo by Unknown Author is
licensed under CC BY-NC

And I know that you are right.
I am a homeless person,
I am a hopeless person.
I failed a hundred jobs.
Don’t know why.
I fail everything,
Every single thing since first grade,
The day I first saw a “book”.
I have always been hungry,
Crackers hidden in my pocket,
Eaten on the school bus,
Hoping they didn’t see,
See and laugh. “Idiot!”
Drive by, wonder why I don’t try.
Me, the lazy homeless person.
The one who no longer tries,
Who no longer hopes,
Me, I am the homeless person,
A person who no longer hopes.
There is no hope,
I am a hopeless person.