This is a 5 minute timed freewrite with edits for spelling only. Please join us every day for a freewrite prompt on my profile
I am a bag lady! No, not what you think. I am not the old lady with a shopping cart full of bags and all kinds of stuff she can't let go of because life has beaten her. Beaten her so much. Has taken everything she ever owned and cared about.
Her kids are gone. Or maybe she never had any. Money is gone. Her mind is gone.
Now, she is the one sitting on the bench of the bus stop with all her treasures right next to her. Close. So she can see them all. They are all she has. All that is left for her in this world. Sitting there and waiting for the day to go by. Waiting for the night with all the insecurities a night on the street has to offer. maybe there are even bottles of urine. That is her bathroom. there are no bathrooms if you live on the street. There is nothing but the pity - if you are lucky - and mostly the disgust of people driving by. Nobody walks who has enough money to drive. They drive by and see trash. Nothing but trash. All her possessions are so precious to her and they look and feel like trash to everyone else in the area. She is trash in their eyes.
She has to go. Unsightly. A nuisance that brings us down. an embarrassment.
Yes, she is an embarrassment. Everyone should be ashamed that bag ladies (and gentlemen) exist in a world where just about everyone thinks that it is okay to go to Starbucks and spend $ 5 on a cup of coffee but it is not okay to spend $ 5 a day to make sure that someone can be sheltered, fed and get the help they need.
I am not a bag lady like that. I have many bags with knitting projects I carry with me wherever I go. Knitting calms my mind and I can walk by that bag lady and not just feel tremendous anger at our society but also compassion for her and thought on how to help her.
