Wanderer

A Poem by Faith Anderson

This poem is about homelessness. I wrote it to acknowledge the endless numbers of homeless people there are and how it can be isolating to see it as a statistic rather than individual people.

Blood-red footprints litter the streets

Cold rain spills o

But the footprints

remain

They never wash

away

Vibrant and lifeless

S c a t t e r e d for miles

I try to count them

But there are so many

My mind cannot comprehend

The cold air reeks of wet dirt

And I feel a deep chill in my bones

I must go inside

But

with this desire

I am reminded

That I have no home

I only wander

The blood-red streets

Where I have walked them

Time and Time

Again

Every Year

Every Day

is a Reminder

And I let my feet paint their invisible mark

On the cold rain that s

over

The blood-red streets

© 2021 Faith Anderson

Author's Note

*This isn't really a note or request for suggestions, but it is an explanation. This poem was inspired by a sea of red autumn leaves I saw on a walking path in Illinois. I noticed how much they looked like footprints and I was also thinking about how cold it was outside and the sadness and pain of being homeless. I thought of how it is a huge issue and how so many times, they are seen as threats, expendable, unimportant, or useless. That's a horribly saddening thought and I wanted to focus in on no particular individual, but get a small surface perspective of someone (the narrator of this poem) who is homeless.