{OF SIN, KARMA, FATHER AND SON}
THE SOUND AS THE ANGELS CHOIR SINGS...
https://youtu.be/bH4J_UV80mQ
The rain falling so hard and a man standing on a street corner as it runs in a raging river down the gutter, cars riding by spraying water from beneath tires.
The man lights a cigarette and looks up, he sees across the street a woman sitting on the edge of the gutter. There is obviously something wrong with her, she wears all white, a t-shirt and pants and she has a look of anguish on her face.
Such pain.
The man watching the woman notices that her legs are open and that she is on her period, the bright red blood mixes with the rain and drips between her legs into the water flowing in the gutter.
At first the man repulsed looks away, What the fuck? he thinks.
Yet he finds himself wondering what life she must have led to lead her to this point.
The man having lost a child just a few years ago, his son, he died in his sleep and the woman has made him jump into the mans arms again, the moment of discovering him, the depths of his anguish.
He looks at the woman and realizes that she could be a metaphor for him, for how he felt after his sons death, the awful reality that he once had begged Allah for the opportunity to die, to leave this place.
His life for his sons.
He forces himself to look at the woman, to take in the scene, the people passing by struggling not to pay her attention, the cars that splash water on her as they pass by.
He tries to make sense of the situation, images continue to flood his mind, the first time he saw a dead body, he a child in Georgia had seen so much death since then, he had become desensitized by the time his son died, he had not cried for anyone dying ever till that day.
He sometimes being the cause of death had categorized it and filed it away.
He feared it not at all.
He in looking at the woman realizes that it could very well be him sitting there covered in the filth and soiling himself, such pain, such anguish.
He wants to help but what can he do? Where will he take this poor woman?
Certainly not to his house, but where?
The homeless shelter is but 4 blocks away and he recognizes her from there, he has seen her talking to herself, raging against invisible demons.
He would like to know her story but he does not know how to approach her.
He standing under the awning of the building as she wet drips blood into an uncaring gutter.
He steps from under the cover and crosses the street, gives her a five dollar bill and continues on his way.
Sins of the father, they overwhelm the son.
Sins of the son become the sins of the father.
Such a conundrum.
JERALD HAMZAHFARUQ MURPHY
