How many beggars can there be in one street?
How many?
There is only one street.
One way street.
And all the beggars are
begging in that street.
Young beggars,
old beggars,
soaked in rain beggars,
sad beggars,
sick beggars
and insane beggars.
They are dragging and cracking,
melting and sinking to the earth -
in that street.
Windows opening to the skin over bones.
Explosion of honour and pride -
in that street.
Begging under no number of zones.
Candle of hopes dying in all the scopes -
in that street.
My God –
What is going on in that street?
It was just yesterday –
newly sacked man choked
when vomiting his heart out in that street.
I don’t want to beg in this street, he hardly whispered,
before passing out in that street.
Will we all be beggars in that street?
Is there only one way –
in that one way street?
Farah Notash
Vienna, June 1st 2004
Book 6
www.farah-notash.com
