New York City 1979

New York City 1979

There were tall buildings and people-packed streets and avenues all around. By 7:00 am droves of people had already spilled out of the Port Authority bus terminal and were rushing to their offices. Women in full dress and make-up, wearing track shoes for a quicker commute by foot, huffed by me. But what I was most struck by were the homeless people, dressed in multiple layers of discarded clothing, living in cardboard houses on the sidewalks. Some with eyes sewn shut; others not bathed, hungry and suffering from dementia, or at least massive confusion. I always spared them some change even though my native NY co-workers called me a sap...

Two years later I woke in the middle of the night and scratched this out like it had been programmed into me by a higher power. My close friend Mike Doyle set it to music. I asked him to keep the tempo urgent, with a Richie Havens-like sound. We thought we had something...

HOMELESS

No one knows your glory
No one knows your shame
No one's heard your story
And no one knows your name

No one's gonna' ask you
No one will reply
No one's gonna hear your truth
And no one hears your lie

No one knows your troubles
No one feels your pains
No one feels your heartbeat
As the blood pumps through your veins-

Until the world feels compassion
For a life that's gone astray
Until giving is in fashion
There is no other way...

No one warms your blankets
No one draws your sheets
No one offers comfort
As you wander through the streets

It's not the life you've chosen
Or what you had in mind
To live amongst the homeless
And beg beside the blind

No one knows your glory
No one knows your shame
No one's heard your story
And no one knows your name-

Until the world feels compassion
For a life that's gone astray
Until giving is in fashion
There is no other way...

VINCENT LEVINE is a free-lance writer and can be reached at: vincent.levine@rocketmail.com