homeless days - book chapter preview

These days, homeless days, pre-homeless days,

post-homeless days….

I was on my own.

No one to talk to.  

No girl friend.

Sad times

in a way…

but I still got a lot of joy out of my life

even in isolation.

You’d think homlessness would be depressing

And in some ways it is.

Losing things…

Losing my dog…

Being dirty and getting a skin infection…

Despereation for food…

But I was really cheerful when i was on the street.

I made little movies on my phone 

when it was charged.

I got joy out of colas and being in the fresh air.

Being ouside suited me.

Sleeping in my tent.

Wandering around.

My first night homless I spent against a wall near the big homeless shelter with a hispanic man who gave me his navy blue cap.  I didn’t sleep much.  Nights outside of the shelter I often didn’t sleep much.  

I think the second night was the night I was walking a lot trying to find the riverside homeless shelter.  I was walking and a short hispanic man offered to pull carry my bag.  I follwed him, but we never got to the shelter.  I spent the night with him in the park and he did sexual things to me.  We didn’t have sex.  

Then I met Sexy Steve.  A tall skinny black man.  Aballet dancer.  He carried my guitar down to the riverside homeless shelter for me.  We went down the tunnel behind building by the river.  He kissed my stomach.  

At the shelter we waited outside to get a number to get in.  We picked a sleeping bag and a pillow and slept in cots.The men had a separate section than the women.  They charged my cell phone for me at the desk.  In the morning there were bagged lunches.  I’d sit outside on the big angled street or under the overpass and ate my lunch.  A somalian man came and handed me his big Starbuck’s water once.  Another time a car came by and gave me some things.  I accepted food, coffee, water, and money on the streets.  One man gave me $200!  I got a free dessert at my favorite local pizza place in the Twin Cities one time.  And a bar gave me an awesome whiskey coke and pizza!  I did not stay sober that homeless summer on the streets. I got drunk on beer at the pizza place and passed out in front of an apartment building nearby.  Luckily that time no one had stolen my things, and I ddin’t get sick.  

Hot dog for lunch.

Remember hot dogs in the park

When I was on the street.

Downtown near the fountain.

Love me

Love me

Love me

Looking around for love

And maybe a meal

At the hotel nearby the park with the hot dog stand 

Very fancy hotel

With ivy.

I camped later in that park in my tent.  

Sprinklers on 

Hammering my tent walls all night

I slept anyway.

At the theatre nearby 

There are a bunch of ghosts that hang out

near the box office doors.

They didn’t bother me.

The street downtown with the AA house on the far end 

is really ghosty.

North of the homeless shelter it has a bunch of bars and restuarants.  

I met up with Steve there once and he was getting rice. 

I didn’t get any.  I wasn’t in the mood.

When it gets dark it’s like being outside in Japan in a big city full of ghosts.

I slept outside a church nearby off that street with my stroller that a nice white man 

gave me outside the homeless shelter. 

Sometimes I spent a lot of time going up and down that street, either walking or on the bus.

I liked getting food and coffee at the grocery store across from the AA house.  

Steve and I hung around the homeless shelter randomly or before walking to the smaller shelter by the river.  Once day we were hanging out and he fingered me.  I liked it.

One day Steve and I were walking to the riverside homeless shelter.  

He brought me into a biig abandoned building and into a parking garage.

We fooled around.

Then, I got afraid of dying and being buried basically in the small car in the garage 

where he wanted to have sex, so I said no and had him take me out.  

Early on once we were walking and we took the lightrail.  He went off when we got to the station and he got us some red, white, and blue popcicles.  I imagined there were drugs in the popcicles. I don’t know if there was.  

book preview

"homeless days" chapter

by Kelly Alexandra

may 19, 2025