It’s not by choice,
We’ve but the street
For our new host,
In this life gone bleak
It be thus a last resort,
Begs we’d not seek
Wanting as consort,
Held so to speak
Apt be a gritty ghost,
Led we live incomplete
Having lost one’s voice,
Mindful of our fate
Now being without choice,
In a discombobulated state
That be life on the street,
The while this last resort
Be until we are too weak,
To drag our bones to port
In a life of empty options,
That be for we the homeless,
Held fixed to muted notions
Reduced we be to nameless,
Drifting in crowded sad seclusion
We’ve to live as shadows on the street…
Suffer alas said we the homeless
In a populous fashioned by human apathy,
Offered in overwhelming abundance
To a growing number of ignored failed voices…
We the homeless, not by choice!
© Jean-Jacques Fournier
Poetry on a Canapé 
“It’s not by choice,” your words show compassion and it brings to mind the plight of the homeless worldwide, a horrible dilemma. Sadly, no easy solutions.
Sadly, some of us, though well aware of the dire inequality our fellow citizens worldwide, and hearing of it nonstop, seem to absorb the constant repetitive reminders, ring in our brain until it has simply become a wordless abrasive sound. Then suddenly awaken by thought that turns into words, that gets the message thru, and thankful that I am to share the need to cry on behalf of those whom long ago lost their voice in the misery they live. Humbly I hope that my little bit helps!
Jean-Jacques
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Yes, I hope your beautiful words reach far and wide and do help.
Thanks again, Paulette, for your ongoing encouragement.
Jean-Jacques
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You are offering a mirror to us all, dear Jean-Jacques, one on which our true selves tell us as how matters are in reality – faces that display a “lack of remorse”. I am particularly moved by this poem of yours, as each of your words reflect insightful contemplation on all of our behalves. “[O]ur fellow citizens worldwide” who face “the dire inequality” across the globe – as you add in your heartfelt and much-telling reply to a comment – are in the greatest of hands under your pen as far as their “unheard voice”. Through your poetic art, you speak volumes on behalf of the “homeless”, but also directly to those who either silence, discard or disregard their voices.
Thank you, Hülya for your encouragement, needed ever so much by they who suffer the consequences of being forced to live on city streets.
Coincidentally on the same day, December 26th, that I completed the poem “We The Homeless” – not by choice – and shared it on my internet blog, an article on CBC News titled ‘We’re everywhere now’: Meet the homeless in Canada’s largest city… that being Toronto, where young people have been living so according to the article, from six months to six years and no doubt more.
How can we and our elected politicians here and in all the other wealthy cities and countries of our world allow this to have happened and even continue to do so?
My two cents worth I know doesn’t amount to much, but if enough people add their two cents, in a persistent manner, maybe, just maybe we can overpower the human greed that stands in the way of reaching out to and for our brothers and sisters in their helpless and homeless life of unfair and inhuman misery!
Jean-Jacques
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Every single day, I wake up to news that underline time and time again how little, if anything at all, we do in order to help ourselves but also assist others into seeing how much misery can be prevented all around the globe, if only more and more voices were to unite. I thank you once again for your consciousness-raising scribe, dearest poet-friend. You are being listened to.
I can but echo your response, and know that we may not get there for me to see, save without tenacity and persistence little or nothing will get done by those who have the power to make an ongoing substantial difference. so you and I and the many others must not relent. Thank you Hülya for your kind words and continued concerns.
What a great sensitive post Jean-Jacques. We all need to work on our empathy for each other. Wishing you all the best for 2020 😃
Truly appreciate your support, and the intent of your response… Thank you for saying!