The Poem

The theme of homeless people has returned once again. I think Sue was remembering the poor people she met while she was on the road playing in bar bands. Many just lived day to day scraping together a few dollars, stuck in a life of poverty. The same people she would later try to help in her job as a social worker.

 

The Picture

This is a new addition to the cardboard “Suite Street” paintings. Charlie and Rose, who are pictured in this painting are imagined people, but they embody the many I’ve met living in the shabby old hotels where Sue and the band played, struggling to get by.

 

Hearts Need a Home

How many hotels I wonder,

Are housing to some poor, lonely soul

Whose heart never had a home?

 

Charlie was at the Oxford

Al in Yellowknife,

Margaret and Rose too

But not at the Inn.

 

I never tried to count

Until just now

Now that my heart has a home

And a fire

 

All this warmth

And all those lonely people

 

We all need someone to care for us

And yet I wonder,

Does anyone care for them now?

 

I wonder if Charlie and Margaret and Rose

Ever found a real home

Other than the hotel,

I wonder if their hearts still beat.

 

Poem by: Susan Michaud

 

Picture by: Sylvia Arthur

 

© Sylvia Arthur