#destitute

[newyorkthegoldenage]

No Parking, May 28, 1949.

Photo: Homer Page via the Nelson Atkins Museum

[howifeltabouthim]

'Near-destitute' she described us. We would grow up clinging to this mysterious phrase without knowing what it meant, exactly. Except that near-destitute was a permanent condition, possibly a spiritual condition, special to us.

Joyce Carol Oates, from The Falls

[lapineparfait]

i see...

[dangerousironpineapple-blog]

[27paperlilies]

Destitution Its taste is rather unpleasant, dry and stale it weighes heavy on my tongue. I could streatch it all around me, cling to its feeble bones. But there in lies the agony, of holding on with little hope. If you could shed that weathered skin I hear someone implore, my answer is I wouldnt let my heart leap at the chance to explore, a life without such a suffocating chore. Hope is far more brutal than this suffering has ever been, to see it glinting in the heavens but for it to be so far out of reach. I watch the lucky ones sometimes, in thier joy and indulgence I see what could have been, food to fill my empty shell, and a smile with happy memories to tell. Even in my misery, I take pride in all I have, for there are certainly some that would think me spolt, in my richly stained rags. So I offer what I can, and that is these words I share, I hope they bring you something, because I have found in them little if not nothing.

[wiirocku]

Psalm 82:3 (NLT) - “Give justice to the poor and the orphan;    uphold the rights of the oppressed and the destitute.

[fiercerthanyou]

Weegee, "Couple in a Bowery Bar," c. 1945,

Gelatin silver print,

Image: 71⁄4 x 91⁄8 in. (18.4 x 23.1 cm.) Sheet: 91⁄2 x 107⁄8 in. (24.1 x 27.6 cm.)

Courtesy: Christie's

[dk-thrive]

it’s hard to love when you’re tired, it’s hard to love when you’re afraid you’ll lose everything

We’re passing a Staples store and a Courtyard Marriott and then a Target, corporate franchises that remind me of some larger narrative of this life that I’ll never be able to control, that this country of ours is a cold commercial machine, one that asks us to feed it and feed it, and whatever time we have left for our families we better use well, but it’s hard to love when you’re tired, it’s hard to love when you’re afraid you’ll lose everything.

— Andre Dubus III, Such Kindness: A Novel (W.W. Norton, June 6, 2023)