Homeless

There's no word in Spanish for the homeless

from which all of the words you can muster 

turn to flame when traveling your tongue

icy cold

like toes up

abandoned on the sidewalk.

"Limosnero", panhandler

The next day

you walk thinking the damned

always have calluses in their right hand 

the musician making coins dance

shaking its pan like a tambourine

a battlecry resisting

glances of contempt.

"Vagabundo", vagabond

Vagabunds they are called

even when they're the most present

on the streets we only see

as liminal, xenophobic they act 

upon ourselves doing what we fear of them 

a bloody home invasion

starting with a crash

and ending on a headlock.

"Indigente", 

We stuff them in jails

where we don't see them 

while the people that roam free

build palaces that turn the streets

into the merciless desert

forgetting they're neighbors.

"Migrante"

Nomads by necessity

their feet leaving trails

for others to take their steps

for they understand

a mere walk 

leaves a mark

on the fabric of belligerence.