The continuing story of The Homeless Man...
Gone - Disappeared - Forever?
Searching - Seeking - Looking - Longing
Finding nothing at this once serendipitous meeting spot. No familiar voice calls out my name any longer.
Only the live melodic strumming of a flamenco guitarist courtesy of the MTA pierces the enveloping midnight stillness of this cavernous place - Grand Central Station.
So where has the GRAND gone for these homeless folk that cross my path instead of you? Scattered like refuse in plain sight pretending to be invisible. Mock travelers with no destinations, sleeping upright at silent ticket booths or tucked in triangular crevices so no one will tell them to leave their temporary cocoon of despair.
This same charade unfolding every night before the new day dawns.
And where are you now my old friend? The Archangel of this Heroic Journey.
Gone missing. Vanished, just like you appeared in my life before 9/11. Book marked forever in my heart-replaced only by what is still yet to come.
Found
And then eight months later, out of the midnight mist you sit propped on an unfamiliar city street, waiting mysteriously for our paths to cross again.
Thirteen years later you have finally found a home on the fifth floor.
And we embark together again on this BENEW journey.