Dear Editor:
Please note the below poems "Ode to the Homeless Man" and "Spring Cleaning".
My name is Thomas Schoenberg, I am a creative writing student at Concordia University-St. Paul.
Thank you for your consideration,

Thomas Schoenberg


Ode to the Homeless Man



As I slip you this five dollar bill

I know you can’t use it as an umbrella

Keeping you dry from the storm that is coming

To wreak havoc on your shanty

Like a banana thrown into a blender set on “high.”



It won’t be a blanket for you

When winter’s harsh breathing exhales

Down your tattered coat and over

Your ribs, which are plainly visible through

Your pale, ashy skin.



I’d like to think that it won’t

Fund another drinking binge

And I am confident that I am right

As I notice the silver “O” around

Your starving mouth.


Spring Cleaning


Places I had forgotten I’d been to,

People I forgot I knew.

Memories of them crawl into my head

From deep recesses, like dormant spiders

Covered in the dust thrown on to them by the

Distractions of the last ten years.

I wish to converse with the people in the frame

But they are frozen there.

It’s like looking at something behind a glass window

In a museum.

I can see them, but I can’t touch these

Wax statues in their exhibits that are

Confined to the glossy paper.

Their smiles tell a lie… these people are not happy.

A prevailing undertone of sadness radiates

From the photos, like everyone was

Happy when the picture was taken

But now they wonder why I haven’t kept in touch.

Nostalgia washes over me like warm water,

But when the feeling passes,

The wind picks up and I am left cold and shivering.