Skip to content
Linespedia

Forgotten One

By johnqpublic

Topics: Poetry Source: AllPoetry Original source

I am a forgotten one though you see me each day on random street corners, and in the parks that are your playgrounds My home is the concrete outside the elegant building where you work each day or behind the restaurant where you chat and laugh and shovel down your steak & lobster Your eyes stare without seeing; when you notice me at all you see just a tattered tramp troubling you for spare change You don't see the lines and scars on my face or the wounds I hold within in your world, I am discarded like the remnants of your last meal I am forgotten like the chill of long ago winters Your vision of me: a nuisance if not a menace, a disgusting drunk lurking in an alley, bothering you with my many needs, cluttering your streets as unsightly litter And in the rare moments when you toss me a "good morning" or random smile you don't see the warmth that fills my heart And as you settle down to bed you don't feel the lethal wind that whips across my nest of cardboard and thick blankets stacked atop the pavement your soft shoes trample every day; when you slide into dreams of comfort those dreams don't include the forgotten one. Written December 21st, 2001 © on Dec 21 2001 07:36 AM PST   10 • 0

AI analysis available. Enable JavaScript to interact.

About this line

"I am a forgotten one..."

Attribution & Rights

Author:johnqpublic

Source:AllPoetry

"I am a forgotten one..." by johnqpublic

For usage rights, copyright concerns, or to report an issue with this content, please visit our Copyright & Report page.

Related lines

"I've just stumbled from a cozy diveto my favorite late night coffee shopprepared to share my wisdom with the multitudesHeavy music fills melike God's heartbeat.Whiskey inside me fuels my pento scatter..."

"I wish I could break the bonds that hold you but I have no key to where you are I wish I could hear your laughter again, pouring over me like sunshine But you've retreated to a place where the sun i..."

"Raised in the blue glow...I was seven before I realizedI did not live on Sesame Streetthat the men of Five-O were not thereto protect me from evildoers(and anyway, my neighborhood did not look like th..."

"I awaken from you, cloaked in sweat;in my dream, you stood on a French Quarter balcony,dressed in lavender lace.You waved your silk handkerchieflike a red flag;I answered your summons in a blind haze,..."

"Her clear gray eyes see beauty all around her even where other eyes see only misery and squalor Yet she doesn't see the kind of beauty hidden only to herself she doesn't hear the wisdom and insight i..."

"I am too old to kneel before a goddess in blue jeans She sees me as kind & sweet & cuddly; I see her as the dream I missed when I was young (& full of promise, like she is now) I see her, in my inte..."

johnqpublic

About johnqpublic

Full Bibliography
Continue Reading

"I've just stumbled from a cozy diveto my favorite ..."

Weekly Poetic Insight

Join our literary Sanctuary

Get the most inspiring lines, poetic analysis, and secret shayaris delivered to your inbox every Sunday.