New York City Homeless Streets 1989

I have this friend, who is mysterious.

He come's in my life at crucial times, he then dissapears.

When I think he is gone, he is right in front of me.

He left an archive of writings, letters, jounals, music and other media in my care.

The other day I came across something David Penn wrote back in 1989.

Things were bad in NYC, David wanted to go and see it on the street level.

So he went to NYC and was able to win the trust of a homeless man he encountered under Trump Towers. 

David and Willi connected.

Willi sold crack or anything he could to survive.

 He lived on the streets. He knew some truths about America you will never learn in no university.

David must have been inspired because he wrote some prose about Willi. It got me thinking about hidden truths in America. Maybe this is relevant.

I apologize David for not asking before sharing, but times are tough, what you wrote helped me. Maybe it will be meaningful for someone else.

"All are imperfect in this human world

All Willi has is his block

Trump a glass cathedral shooting to the sky

Willi sells crack to live

Sleeps down in the park, sometimes the subway

Trump destroys low income housing

Builds more cathedrals

Self enclosed glass worlds, that control it all

Philanthropy, art museum, what good does it do?

Fans egos, elitism, legitimizes it all

But Willi is the criminal, problem for society

Sells drugs to live, whatever he finds

Nothing trickles down on the streets

Willi gets kicked out of the met,

He wants to sleep

Skyscrapers and money are God, climb the rungs

Every action has a consequence, every action has a consequence!

"Just say no Willi, just say no! Willi heard someone say.

Willi takes a piss on the wall, keeps moving down the street.

He's closer to understanding human nature

Never read Freud, Jung or any lofty work

It's all there down on the streets, you just gotta look

Willi laughs at the fur coated fools

The marks buying cheap shit on the street

Willi laughs at the suckers from the suburbs

Out of town joksters looking for a high time in the city

Willi will send them to the right place

Knock three times, put the money under the door

It's pure, 70% real, blow the mind in two

Willi knows who he is, he knows what to do

It's day by day, take or be taken

The streets speak the truth, the real humanity."

Written by David Penn, under Trump Towers, after spending all night, on the streets with Willi. Winter 1989.

This is not meant as a political commentary on my part. Just a reflection on a night with a homeless man, a night that seemed to make an impression on David.

I remember seeing him after that night, David told me, "Stop reading your books, spend some time on the streets with the homeless, and learn whats really going down in America."

What is funny all these years later, I work with the homeless, and David was right,  on the streets you feel the pulse of this country, and know what's really going down.

If you made it to the end of this post you are to be rewarded, I think it is my longest yet, ok, fading out, goodnight."