Hobo Handbook: Memoirs of a Homeless Poet in New York (Excerpt #16)

THE HOBO HANDBOOK: MEMOIRS OF A HOMELESS POET IN NEW YORK
By Daniel Canada c.2010

 

 

 

PLASTIC SHOPPING BAGS (Continued)

 

After you've mastered the art of stashing your belongings in a suitable shopping bag, and learned the wisdom of keeping handy newspapers around to insulate yourself from the cold, you're already transitioned into life on the street and didn't even know it. Now that you've become proficient in stowing away your valuables in a good hideaway, and discovered clever ways to keep tract of the passing of time, as well as how to keep up your personal hygiene, you can almost pass off as regular citizen of the State.

What is more, after you've also garnered a working knowledge of the many operating soup kitchens, around town, that give out decent hot meals, you're practically on your way to becoming a bona fide, well-experienced, homeless bloke.

Admittedly, not much to pat oneself on the shoulder about, but there it is. Notwithstanding all of these undertakings, there's yet more to learn about homelessness.

You will be loath to discover that there are many different levels of homelessness, some of which you can unconsciously slide into, if you are not watchful. One needs to be cognizant of the subtle transformations a person can unwittingly undergo, after spending too much time out on the streets. In the next chapter, I will take great pains to emphasize the various levels of homelessness one can slip into, if one is not vigilant in taking constant stock of themselves.

 

 

CHAPTER TWO LEVELS OF HOMELESSNESS

 

Maybe this chapter should have come first, but I chose to make it second simply because homelessness is not only just a state of being, it can also devolve into a state of mind. Who and what you are on the streets can depends greatly on how you deal with the issues of the previous chapters. In addition, what you become out here has a lot to do with the sensitive conditions of your initial beginnings, with what you were before you became homeless.

 

(To be Continued...)