Vendor Writing
From the Bookshelf
|
Jen A. Recommends I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home, By Lorrie Moore
Vendor Writing
Compassion, Not Prisons, Key To Building Strong Community!
|
The Denver Mayor has declared a state of emergency to address homelessness. Why don’t we do the same in Tennessee?
Vendor Writing
Stigmata
|
You awaken in the darknessAnd set out to break your fast before workThe floppy toe of your worn-out shoeCatches on an uneven sidewalk seamYou stumble and tumble downUnable to catch yourselfThe knees of your pants rip open firstThen the skin on your knees and palmsGives wayTo the rough craggy slab of ancient concreteYou do your best to staunch the bloodWith the cuffs of your shirtThen limp on to the fast food placeYou grab some napkins at the beverage barAnd continue to dab at the bloodYou take a place in line and noticeThe girls at the counterAre looking in your directionLike there must be someoneWith two heads in your proximityYou look behind you with excited anticipationWhen a young man wearing a name tagThat just reads “manager”Approaches and asks you to leaveSaying they don’t serve your kind there
Vendor Writing
Undefeated
|
It’s hot — so hot!Humidity?Through the roofI’m cute as all get-outIn my flowers and bowsYet after two hoursOf hawking my papersOn the heat-radiating roadwayBack and forth, back and forthI’ve not made a single dollarI pack it inThinking of dear ScarlettDefiant — UndefeatedI whisper to the SunTomorrow is another day!
Vendor Writing
Extra Terrestrial Baseball Hero Lands in Cincinnati
|
Near the beginning of this year’s baseball season, Joey Votto, Canadian-born, long-time first baseman for the Cincinnati Reds, made an unusual prediction on MLB’s official webpage. He wrote that on April 15, 14 games into the 2023 baseball season, extra terrestrials would arrive on Earth. He said it would take five months for us to learn to communicate and befriend them. He went on to say that play would resume in October and that the Reds would sweep the playoffs to become World Series Champs. When I text a friend of mine who was struggling with the torture of knee replacement surgery in Cincinnati this fanciful tale she replied, “Well, looking forward to friendly extra terrestrials will give me something to live for.
Vendor Writing
Walking the Walk
|
This year, I was fortunate enough to march in the Nashville Pride Parade with other members of The Contributor community!
Vendor Writing
Let’s “Stigmatize” the Homeless
|
Recently, a Fox News commentator, Jesse Watters, bloviated about the problem of homelessness in America. He said that the root cause was not the lack of affordable housing but that cities reward unhoused citizens by coddling and subsidizing their anti-social behavior. “It’s about drug addicts who want to wander around and live in tents on the sidewalk,” Watters continued. “You have to stigmatize it,” he said. “You can’t make them out to be some sort of cutting-edge heroes.
