Homeless Citizens In A Library Poem by Hans Ostrom
Homeless Citizens In A Library
People have retreated
from the outside
of not having homes
to the inside of not
having homes. This
week that’s the public
library. Amongst books
and terminals, people
sit and lie, squat and
sleep. In bathroom stalls,
a few sell sex or chemicals.
Something needs to be
done about this problem.
Let’s run a keyword
search. Let’s look
for authors of this failure,
Let’s identify the complete
title of our responsibility.
Let’s use our library-cards
and borrow the brains and
humanity to get these
people the help they need,
to get us
people the help we need.
let me know when you find the search engine and indicators that identify THEM... I spend time writing submissions re library closures.... One Peace at a time...
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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5/1/2024 8:54:53 PM # 1.0.0.1119
My poem, 'The Lady at the Desk Wouldn't Understand, ' published by the Santa Rosa Junior College in 'First Leaves 2002, ' takes a different stance on this issue. With an abundance of homeless, lack of shelters (day or night) or public supervised washrooms, the libraries do end up being a refuge of last resort. Our library system recently posted new rules. Banned is smoking near the door or in the open air courtyard and people noticeably smelling bad. Prohibited is bathing or washing clothes in the bathrooms and they have hired guards to enforce the same. Unfortunately part of reality is they also had to post signs on the bathroom doors warning parents not to let their children go in unattended. Nothing rhymes with that. Tom