The Beggar by the road

Photocredit : dpexpert.com.au

He sat there by the wall overlooking the road;in his rags and tatters and messy state one could easily have mistook him for a gunny bag on the pavement....his sense of hygiene had left him the day he emerged out of the sanctity of the womb into the outside world of the gutters...His hair had never seen blade, and his skin rough as animal skin; from him emanated a stench that would make even sewers smell like a spring field....

People passed by him without a care, sometimes just treating him as if he were a stone or some similar obstacle in their path.A few would look at him and think "Oh my! How can he be so filthy!" or "why can't these people just disappear!" and walk on, to perform their daily errands. Few of the more compassionate kind would drop a coin or two in the rusty tin placed beside him...enough for him to buy a pack of biscuits or if lucky, a loaf of bread at the end of the day to satiate his hunger...

He had been beaten and chased by a constable once or twice, but the pangs of hunger and the desire of survival are strong in the less fortunate;a day or two later he would return, to his spot by the wall...sitting with pleading eyes,searching for a bit of compassion from his fellow human beings...