Street roots., July 24, 2009, Page 4, Image 4

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C E U B B B A T X N G IO E ^X D E
30
street roots
Education * Dialogue * Independence
The Tailoring of a
Wordsmith
Sarah Shaheen © 2009
Teddy, I am not poor today.
. .
I have no money, But I am not poor.
I am writing and
I would write
A thousand poems,
A thousand parcels of scintillating stars.
To gain the fortune of seeing
One of them being read
By a man with brass knuckles,
And a belt that reads Conception.
Always with
a song in
his heart
Now if he only had
a guitar to pound
out the rhythm
BY ELIZABETH SCHWARTZ
C O N T R IB U T IN G W R IT E R
1" 7 “ evin Bynum is the first Street Roots -
14 vendor I have interviewed who is
To feel their stigma |
Rise up between the pages of
A paper bound ink dance.
To run up and catch the falling
Letters
Off of a once abandoned hitch van.
To put on the lavish dress
Of a good imagination
And public announcer. .
■X Xhomeless as a direct result of the
economy. He doesn’t think that he can get
regular work for a while, so he’s looking for
ways to enjoy his current situation. A guitar
would help.
Bynum dreams of owning a steel string
acoustic guitar this summer so he cap play
“All Summer Long” by Kid Rock outside
W 1B0B f i o r i t i
To follow the trail of silvery biscuits and
Burnt toast
Beneath a sun umbrella.
• Kevin Bynum,
To find J
The satisfaction of long endured passion
Lingering somewhere between.
Blood and ink.
VooDoo Doughnut in Old Town Portland.
It was 1989, my thoughts were short, my
hair was long / Caught somewhere between
boy and man
“Why that song?” Tasked Kevin during
Teddy, I am not poor today. <
I have no m oney, b u i l am-not-paor,
Only ravenous. , .,.
P H O T O B Y E L IZ A B E T H S C H W A R T Z
| |
So, I write a thousand poems,
And dream a pretty sweetheart dream
Of Being tailored by a wordsmith.
our interview..
...
....... .
........
„
“¿»ecause lo ts of p e o p le know it and
would start singing with me.”
She was seventeen and she was far from
in-between / It, was summertime in Northern
Michigan
The tattoo artist and remodeler came to
Portland via Seattle from Atlanta, Ga. He
worked as a remodeler for a man who
appears to have been buying small
apartment buildings, fixing them up, and
then either selling them or renting out the
units. The financial market froze uh, the
employer could not get a loan to purchase
the next building, and Kevin got laid off.
Ahh, ahk, ahh j
Ahh, Aah, ahh
i Street Roots strives for accuracy,-but
we're human. So we also strive to correct
errors in our paper whenever possible.
Please report any errors to o u r managing
editor, Joanne Zubl, at 503-228-5657, or
write in to joanne@streetroots.org.
Kevin was evicted from his housing on
the second day of the worst snowstorm ?'
Portland has seen in a long time. Nearly
penniless, he stayed the first night of his
“new experience” at the Portland Rescue
Mission. Then he moved to various warming
centers operated by the Red Cross and
looked for work. That first month he said he
talked to a few individual tattoo artists and
inquired abouf jtitis at a handful of shops. “I
■wao told< th e
y
People ~ ~
were using their money for necessities, not
tattoos.”
Splashing through the sandbar,
Talking by the campfire
It wasn’t long before Kevin attended a
Street Roots vendor orientation and began
selling newspapers. He often used part of
his income to chip in for a motel room with
other vendors. Other nights he stayed with
friends. He has been a vendor for seven
months. Kevin is grateful to Street Roots
because it keeps a roof over his head. If he
had that steel string acoustic guitar, he told
•me, and sang on a street corner, he would
be able to increase his income. “Street
musicians and panhandlers make more than
vendors do.”
It’s the simple things in life, tike when and'
where, / We didn’t have no Internet
Butm an I never will forget / The way the
moonlight shined upon her hair
The- simple life may not have included the
Internet in 1989, but it can now. The Street
Roots office gives its vendors free access to
a computer. Kevin communicates with his
daughter via his MySpace page and texting
on his cell phone. Kevin showed me a photo
of Tori. She was wearing a necklace with a
silver guitar charm on it, “because she
knows how important the guitar is to me,” '
he said.
Singing Sweet home Alabama dll summer
long
Kevin told me that being a vendor has
had its benefits. He likes “meeting hundreds
of new people each day, listening to their
stories, telling some of mine.” He would like
to learn all about Portland culture, which is
more “tolerant” than back home. But
Bynum misses his daughter, who is still in
Georgia with her mother. He would like to
find a way to bring Tori to Portland after
she graduates from high school next year.
May the summer of 2Q09 be kind
with ah economic thaw close behind.
Ahh, ahh, ahh
Ahh, ahh, ahh
NEW S E A S O N S
M A R K E T
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syrlngeexchange&disposal» condom s& supplies •
referrals • health info • someone to talk to
fri&of fast store in town.
Call fortim es and locations.
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