THE ARRIVAL

Well me and Sa..y walked all the way to THE HOUSE i really enjoyed the walk with her, i think this is the first time i really, really remember so much about a street I had walked before and how I notice thanks to her all the new things that I had never noticed before now. She knew everyone on the streets and they knew her, I imagine that is the thing that had kept her safe all these years on the streets, everyone knew her. When we got to THE HOUSE Sa..y let out a howl that made me jump a mile, and then she said to me girl you are so blessed I have always wanted a cute little house and I am blessed she said because I get a chance to live in the yard of a cute little house and still feel free. She was crying, I am not comfortable with seeing wimmin cry so I walked rapidly in front of her and said come I'll show you where you can set up your tent (when i said that i realized for the first time that she didn't have a tent) and we walked to the back yard. She asked me if she could decide on where she would like to live in the yard (I said to myself why? I should be the one to tell you where you will live in my yard,but i did not say that) I said sure you can pick your spot just tell me where cause I want to put in a garden, she said o where I live won't interfere with your garden wherever you put it. She then asked if she could use the water hose I said yea, she went to the water hose, pulled it out into the center of the back yard, undressed, turned on the water and started to bath herself from the head down, I asked if she wanted some shampoo or soap, she just smiled and kept running water over herself. Minutes later she motioned to me to cut off the water, which I did, she stood there skyward for a few and then began to put on the clothing she had on before. I said to her that I had some clothing that I thought may fit her and that she could have them, I went inside and grabbed some clean clothing I had in an extra clothing box that I save to wear when my size changes and took them to her, she thank me and put them on and said to me now I am ready. I asked ready for what? She said to go in your house I remembered when you asked me to please bath before I came to your house so I have and now I am ready to go in your house. I smiled but I felt awful. We went in THE HOUSE. MY HOUSE?

THE GREAT MOVE HOME

Well i went to met my homeless friend today to ride or walk with her back to THE HOUSE where she is going to live in my yard in a tent, she has decided to give up her homeless title to live here, i certainly hope that i am doing the right thing i did not ask the wimmin of the group if it was OK for her to move here because after all i am renting THE HOUSE from G..... not them, i guess if they don't like her being here they will voice it I'm pretty sure. So i caught the bus to the I-95 underpass to met her, she was there and seemed ready to go, she asked me if i would sit with her for a few minuets to say good by to the place and to leave of all things some incense there burning so that the next womon who live there would find peace as she had, i thought that was very sensitive and kind of her. While we were sitting there another womon walked up to talk to her and to say goodbye, they chatted for a bit and then my friend said to her you can have this space if you want it is a very good one, the other womon thanked her and asked if she could have the thin and funky looking mattress my friend gave it to her and also gave her 3 cigs, they hugged each other and said good bye. I thought to myself what a wild wild world we all live in, here are two wimmin who seem to care for each other calling themselves homeless and seeming to have all the love in their hearts for each other and yet....well i just find that very touching. My friend asked her friend if she would come visit her sometimes at her new place, she told her that she did not know exactly where it was but as soon as she was settled she would come up for her, they both agreed to this and we left. My homeless friend does have a name her name is Sa..y, so i said Sa..y you want to wait for the bus and she asked if it was OK if we walked? ok by me and so we did. It was a lovely walk one that i had not had before now, she showed me places that i had never noticed in my past walks or rides,for example i had never noticed the pomagrante trees near the sidewalks there and they were full of fruit, i did not know how to tell if they were ripe but she did and told me that they would be ripe in another week or so and that we could come and get some but that we had to be sure to keep noticing because everyone in the area were waiting for them to ripen. She showed me a neighborhood grocery store that specialized in fruits from the Caribbean Island and a little restaurant that had very good home cooked foods and always had a vegetarian meal to offer. We had a great walk and i felt so good walking with a womon who was so familiar with the streets i really felt safe with her, and that was truly a strange feeling for me. And so slowly we walk to THE HOUSE, and she said the wildest thing to me she said i want to thank you for helping me make THE GREAT MOVE HOME.

HOMELESS FRIENDS AGAIN ?

I have had so many dreams in the past few nights, some of them were fun some were very scary. One in particular i dreamed that my homeless friend was murdered by a group of homeless men, i remembered she told me that she did not hang around the homeless men because they were no different from those who had homes, and that she did not feel safe around them, i wondered how she could avoid them being outdoors. I also dreamed that my homeless friend who had died earlier was really still alive but living somewhere else, i realized that this was a figment of my imagination, cuz myself with some other wimmin had her cremated. I think these dreams are my minds way of telling me to give some more thought about inviting my homeless friend to live in the yard at THE HOUSE, and i think i will visit her and tell her so. So i took a walk to where she lives under the I95 expressway to see if she really wanted to live in the yard at THE HOUSE, the back yard is very large. My walk was relatively calm and simple, nothing spectacular happening on the streets, it is a different walk from THE HOUSE to where she is than it was from my apartment in an unsafe part of town, seem as though there were less bodies out walking and as i would walk past others they did not seem as friendly as the others in my old neighborhood, maybe i just need to walk this more often. When i got to the underpass my friend was sitting there smoking, i didn't know that she smoked and said that to her, she smiled and said i don't smoke tobacco. I sat down and began to talk to her she seem so sad and i mentioned that to her. She said she was sad and it was because she wanted to see her two daughters but they were not open to seeing her unless she stop being homeless at this point i asked her if she would really like to live outside in a tent in the yard at THE HOUSE? She beamed, smile and said i sure would cause i really want to see my daughters, and that they would come to see her if she was living in a house, i reminded her it would be a tent, she reminded me that a tent is a house to her and a lotta others, she asked me if i remembered the THE TENT CITIES, that were established during the civil rights marches? I said do i remember? i most certainly do i lived in one of them during that time. I told her that she could move into the yard on that week-end, i also told her that i had three requests she asked me what they were. First i said i insist that you take a shower when you get to THE HOUSE, i told her i just could not take the odor, she laughed and said no problem my odor is getting next to me, and asked whats the next request, i told her when she live in the yard in a tent there were to be no men there on the land, and that any food preparation on the land had to be vegetarian, to that she said no worry no men, and when i want to eat meat i know where to go it won't be there. Great i said, i asked if she needed help moving her stuff her answer, the only stuff i will carry with me will be what i wear that day, i asked if she had other clothing she said no. I must see if i can get some clothing out of the spare box of stuff that was left by some wimmin. I stood up and told her i was leaving and that i would walk up on Saturday to get her and we could walk back to THE HOUSE or catch a bus, she reminded me that she had no money for the bus i told her not to worry and left.

DREAM ALL MY FEARS AWAY

Well i wanted to dream and dream i did. I had so many dreams that when i woke up they all merged together and the only thing i remembered was i had been driving a huge truck and the brakes would not hold whenever i back up. So rather than fret over what i could not remember i started thinking about what living in THE HOUSE would be like, i wonder if i should call her THE HOUSE without color or THE HOUSE without fire, i find i like naming where i live and i do believe that is why i always called the apartment 'my apartment in an unsafe part of town. I need to give a lot of thought to what i name THE HOUSE cuz i do believe that naming something can imbue it with power and i want this place to be a power-filled one, one of change and intent.