contemporary bench with anti-sleeping bar

Indexing the Life and Death Experience of Homelessness

in Poetry on Share

beggar (also see bum, hobo, homeless, tramp, transient, vagrant, and vagabond), 5 begging, 5, 113, 213, 214, 271 stemming, 271 bum (also see beggar, hobo, homeless, tramp, transient, vagrant and vagabond), 66, 272 burial (also see county disposition and potter’s fields) 5, 16 – 22, 72 – 77, 85 – 86, 90 – 98, 103 – 107, 110 – 120, 230, 260, 269, 274 mass, 21, 112, 230, 246 – 247, 257, 261, 274 choice (also see lacking), 12, 38, 57 – 58, 60, 62, 69, 76, 81 – 82, 90, 97, 120, 127, 139, 148, 150, 153, 163, 187, 219, 247 conditions frostbite, 131, 133, 161, 175 heat-stroke, 175 hypothermia, 133, 175 hyperthermia, 175 county disposition (also see burial and potter’s field), 65, 68, 75, 83 death bad, 65 ,77, 98, 183 cafes, 37 good, 61, 76, 183, 276 lonely, 76, 190 social, 76, 79, 163 Department of Transitional Assistance, 85 – 86, 95, 134 deserving, 130, 153, 165, 176, 191, 232, 275 dignity, 5, 77, 90, 113, 115, 120 – 121, 229, 231, 269, living with, dying with, being treated with diseases bed bugs, 175, 185 cellulitis, 175, 185 chronic, 88, 94, 171, 174 – 175, 183, 188, 209 – 210, 221, 274 communicable, 175, 185 conjunctivitis, 175 COVID-19, 45, 62, 94, 189, 247, 275 diarrhea, 175 Hepatitis A, 175 Hepatitis C, 175 HIV/AIDS, 175 influenza, 175 lice, 175 nosocomial infections, 175 scabies, 175 tuberculosis, 175 viral meningitis, 175 West Nile Virus, 175 disparity, 61, 167, 169, 233, 243, 273 disposition, 20, 31, 37 – 38, 59, 65 – 66, 74, 95, 111, 118, 182 drug and alcohol misuse, 93, 173, 212, 217 encampments, 202, 204 – 205, 209 – 213, 217 – 219 Fresno County Cemetery (also see potter’s field), 21, 229, 243, 245, 248 – 249, 257 forgotten, 5, 66 – 67, 82, 98, 120, 150, 163, 227, 233, 241, 247, 274 grievable (also see deserving), 246 (un), 240 ground down, 18, 39 falling to the ground… being knocked to the ground… being hit by cars… getting beat by other homeless people… getting beat by non-homeless people… getting drunk and falling over… having heat exhaustion and falling over… unable to refill a prescription for epilepsy, so having a seizure and falling over… hitting rock bottom and having it hit back. Hart Island (also see potter’s field), 92 – 94 health care (also see diseases, conditions, and injuries), 28, 90, 125, 132, 139, 147, 157, 160, 164, 170 – 174, 176 -177, 186, 188 – 190, 273 hobo (also see bum, homeless, vagabond, and vagrant), 5 home, 25 – 29, 112, 114, 119 – 120, 130 – 131, 161 – 162, 173, 185, 189 – 190, 202, 204, 212, 229, 269 – 272 places considered home: a car, parks, abandoned buildings, a couch, a bus or train station, an airport, camp grounds, a tent, hotels or motels. privacy and security, homeless (also see beggar, bum, hobo, tramp, transient, vagrant, and vagabond), 17, 20, 66, 73, 77, 80, 86 – 88, 90, 93 – 94, 125 – 127, 139 – 140, 145, 148, 152, 157, 159, 161 – 164, 168 – 169, 171, 173, 175 – 178, 182 – 183, 186, 188 – 190, 202, 204 – 213, 218 – 220, 229, 262 – 263, 272 – 273 experiencing person house (also see home and shelter), 26 – 29, 40, 65, 74, 87, 94, 125 – 126, 135, 143 – 144, 152, 154, 158, 161 – 162, 254 – 255 Housing First, 187 – 188 indigent, 5, 16 – 17, 19, 20, 66, 83, 85, 90 – 98, 115 – 116, 119 – 120, 163, 183, 227, 229, 231, 247, 267 – 268, 273, 276 inequality, 61, 152, 209 injuries traumatic brain injury, 175 institutionalization,183, 187 – 188, 212 invisible, 97, 134 lacking, 18, 60, 66, 162 – 164, 227, 233 . . . an address, . . . agency, . . . a bed, . . . choice, . . . clothing, . . . dignity, . . . family support . . . a fixed abode, . . . food, . . . funds for rent, . . . a home, . . . an identity, . . . a job, . . . morality, . . . a place to sit, . . . resources, . . . respect, . . . shelter, . . . sleep, less, 5 – 275 home, 5 – 275 friend, 61 – 62 family, 61, 66 penni-, 66, 83, 112 loneliness, 77, 188 mental health, 153, 175, 177, 180, 187, 188, 221, 231 outcast, 5, 78, 92 ostracized, one who is… rejected, one who is… Death may be the great equalizer, but not all deaths are created equal. On the day he dies, a lot will happen around him but will not necessarily be about him. Maybe someone will notice, maybe not. Maybe someone will claim him, maybe not. Maybe he will be given a proper burial with family and mourners and his name will be felt on people’s tongues and heard in people’s hearts, but maybe not. Perhaps his body will languish on the streets for a few hours or days, or he’ll get lucky and be picked up right away by the coroner. He might walk into an emergency room and never walk back out. He might walk into an emergency room and be sent back out. Maybe he’ll die on a park bench. Maybe he’ll die on the edge of a heating grate on the street, having warmed up briefly in winter, only to roll off in his sleep and freeze to death. Maybe he’ll develop a cancer he doesn’t know he has and doesn’t treat because he’s too busy standing at line at the social security office, waiting in the shelter for food, begging on the streets for money, until the symptoms can finally be ignored no longer and they scream terminal. He may have the fortune of being sent to a medical respite unit and provided hospice care, compassion, and dignity. He may also end up hooked to machines in an ICU with no voice, no agency in how he dies. After death, his body may be collected and paid for by someone who knew him and loved him, still loves him, even if they don’t know him anymore. Or he might languish in cold storage at the county morgue until the requisite bureaucratic time is up and he’s buried unceremoniously in a two-deep grave with only a number as a marker. Or cremated, boxed and stored for a future mass indigent burial. He’s an outcast, a beggar, indigent, destitute, poor, needy, broke, and broken. Maybe those around him don’t see him, have forgotten him. potter’s fields (also see burial and county disposition), 9, 16 – 21, 35, 65, 83, 90 – 92, 96, 105, 111 – 116, 119, 182, 221, 243, 247, 267, 270, 274 racism (also see homelessness), 275 shelter, 5, 20, 90 – 91, 116, 125 – 126, 128 – 130, 217 street, 5, 17, 20, 65, 68, 70, 73, 88, 134 – 135, 138 – 139, 144, 148 – 149, 154, 163, 168, 170, 175 – 178, 180 – 181, 184 – 187, 190, 201, 206, 210, 212 – 215, 219 – 220, 227, 229, 272 tramp (also see beggar, bum, hobo, homeless, transient, vagabond, and vagrant), 5 means of support, one with no… performs a function poorly, one who… settled residence, one with no… sponges, one who… the word “tramp” specifically regarding homelessness stems from the US Civil War, when soldiers going off on their own were referred to as “going off on a tramp” (Kusmer 37). transient (also see beggar, bum, hobo, homeless, tramp, vagabond, and vagrant), 16, 65, 77, 86, 112, 146, 152, 164, 172 transience, 16 unhoused (also see homelessness), 8, 87, 89, 91, 93, 159, 162, 164, 169, 175, 183, 204, 275 vagabond (also see beggar, bum, hobo, homeless, tramp, transient, and vagrant), 5 vagrant (also see beggar, bum, hobo, homeless, tramp, transient, and vagabond), 5 walking, 103, 108, 115, 130, 133 – 134, 138 – 139, 148 – 149, 154, 161, 181, 202 – 203, 206, 216, 227 – 228, 241, 262, 271 is a primary mode of transportation for many experiencing homelessness, is to be a foot traveler, is to move along on foot (also see health), is to roam, is to step especially heavily, is to tread.

 

 

Image: Scott Web, Public Domain CC0 Image

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