I had called April the day before and she said that she could see me the next morning at 11am. I almost didn’t show, but I had heard that churches sometimes gave out money and lodging to the homeless. If I knew any better though, my mother had probably warned her about giving me any cash. My mother, after all, was the one who had told me to contact her. April worked at…
The sound of doors slamming in the distance, and the quick beep of horns signaling cars being unlocked woke me from my light sleep. The air inside the laundry room was dry and dusty, and yet the old blankets and towels that I had piled together as a makeshift bed between a dryer and the wall smelled extremely musty. I awoke wiping the sleep from my eyes and immediately wanting to light up a cigarette. …
On N. Luzerne St. the cool air cycles through the block like a whirlwind rattling your windows awakening you. You’ve got a bed sheet hanging over the window in an attempt to block the early morning sunlight, and a washrag stuffed down into the cracked wood just below the window sill to try to slow the wintry air from entering your bedroom. This is a bedroom that you share with your two younger brothers. The…
“We need to stop just pulling people from the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’ve been falling in.” -Desmond Tutu The river of addiction never stops flowing. Hundreds of thousands fall into it and are swept out at sea. There are hundreds of nets, platforms and resources set up at the mouth of the river to catch people before they are swept out at sea. However at the part of…
The back right tire catches some gravel on the shoulder, and starts to slide as I grab the steering wheel and try to pull the car back in line. The car swerves back and forth until finally gaining traction. The blue bandana around my head is drenched in sweat as my teeth clench tightly at the leather belt that is wrapped around my bicep. “Start me up” by The Rolling Stones is blaring out of…