Keep Me From the Depths

“shade photo of woman” by Callie Gibson on Unsplash

I’ve seen plenty of homeless people before. Some of them I have even become friends with, in a “Hi, how are ya, here’s some change,” sort of way. But this one standing with his back against a brick building in downtown Eugene spooked me. He wasn’t large or menacing. He was even relatively well kept. But when I made eye contact to offer him some change, well, his stare stopped me cold and I just kept walking.

eyes that have been insane
for a long long time
scare me to the quick

Keep Me From the Depths was originally published in The Junction on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.