The community I live in is a relatively affluent one. Not Gross Pointe or East Grand Rapids, but the rate of free and reduced price lunch in the schools is roughly half of the state average. According to the real estate web site for Trulia Realtors, the average listing price for homes in my zip code is currently $357,000. Only four of 133 homes currently listed for sale are listed for under $100,000. The average is no doubt pulled up since seven homes, all with Lake Michigan access, are listed at over $1 million. The median home listing (normally a better indicator of the community since a few very expensive homes can skew the data quickly) is still about $230,000-$240,000.
However, within the community are pockets of poverty. Approximately, 29 percent of the children last school year qualified for free/reduced price school lunch. There are areas of trailer and migrant housing. As mentioned above, there are homes in the district which are valued at less than $100,000. Some are much less.
My point is that poverty exists here. But I wasn't really thinking about that when I went to the public library recently. I wasn't thinking about the fact that many people don't have access to not only medical care, but dental and vision care as well. This lady was my reminder:
Chance Encounter
Walking into the library entry
my thoughts are on the book
needing to be returned
and the new one I hope to check out.
But I see kneeling there
a woman who also notices me
as she tries on a discarded pair of glasses
from the box marked:"Lions Donations."
Her search much more urgent
than feelings of embarrassment
so she continues, as do I
to deposit my returned book
in the slot next to her.
Perhaps ten minutes later
after checking out a new book
on the life of Darwin
I exit where
she is still kneeling in the entry
scrounging through the box
trying out nearly every pair.
Alone.
So, with sadness in my eyes
I pass her by again.
She looking for better sight.
Me, for human evolution
and dignity.
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