A Summer Morning

In between the hot humid days that have hung in the air 

this month, we have seen quite a bit of rain. 

The storms that have flooded other parts of the country, 

such as Texas and Missouri, have wended 

their way into Indiana. As I look out my window 

to the south, the sky is bright blue above 

a curtain of gray clouds; southern Indiana is 

experiencing storms, accompanied by the real threat

of tornadoes.

I like to get up early in the morning,

sometimes leaving early to walk around downtown

to take pictures, Here, about a month ago, the sun

bounced brightly off the glass of an office building, and

cast its aura through the pale, pink blooms

on the trees outside the Federal Court Building.

These walks often make me think that we have

quite another storm brewing in our midst at street level.

Here, the beauty of the morning is sucked

away by the reality of homeless men sleeping

on the sidewalks. I am not afraid at these times.

Instead, I feel embarrassed, as though I've walked

into someone's home, unwittingly crossing 

an invisible wall, one that exists on 

the sidewalk just outside a hotel.

The number of these folk is increasing;

people caught in a void of no job, no home,

little food. Snared by some

vortex of bad luck and/or poor choices,

 they are the stormfront, warning us of future

upheavals. Every day, I tell myself,

There but for fortune go I,

and one of these days, it could just as

easily be me or any number of my friends.

The chasm is growing.