Nameless

I survived the cold, I survived the heat

I survived the infection eating at my feet

I survived days with no crumbs to eat

I can tell you the taste of bitter concrete

In the morning, in the night

I see a hundred passerby

A hundred eyes avert their sight

A hundred eyes judge my plight

I try to walk among the others

As if we were still brother-sisters

Not a diseased concoction of litter

Look at me beyond my blisters

Less love I know than a stray cat sees

More hurt I have than a stray cat feels

I stopped looking human when I stopped paying fees

I stopped feeling human when I begged on my knees

I survived the cold, I survived the heat

But I did not survive the night of June 13

Of three drunk men and their rage at me

Each blow to my bone, each crack on my ribs

Each word from their mouth, drew none from my lips

Myself, I felt fading. My soul, it was waiting

With a smile, I left, now no longer paining

The strays I fed, others on street,

The night sky with my secrets to keep,

They will move on, like currents in the sea.

The world moves on, but the stars will remember me.