The Poor You Will Always Have With You by Chris Cottom

 

Image | Mart Production

The Poor You Will Always Have With You

When the hostel for the homeless closes forever, Marian and I climb to the roof and shout Solidarity with the dispossessed! above four floors of emptiness. We weep for the men we still want to help, with their frost-reddened knuckles, matted trousers, and cider-soaked breath. They’ve left no ghosts: no Ron, his throat rattling as he cusses about everything; no Graeme grieving for his dog, long-lost or more likely imagined; no Del railing at the dyslexia no-one has named. 

Marian is quiet as we walk home. Eventually she says, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’

‘Do what?’

‘The foodbank, the drop-in centre, any of it. Yesterday there was a young mum – she hardly looked old enough to have a boyfriend – desperate for some formula for her baby. But I had to explain milk wasn’t part of what we do.’ 

‘What was it Jesus said? The poor you will always have with you.’

‘Are you listening to me? I’m not strong enough for this.’

I don’t tell her I’ll be stopping too; that we’ve used up our savings and need to find work; how our dream home, an eco cabin surrounded by woodland, will have to wait; how I’ve cancelled my taster session on Willowcraft for Beginners. Instead, we agree she needs some me-time and should book that yoga weekend I bought for her birthday.

Later, while Marian’s at her sewing group, I watch YouTube videos of Robin Hood, from the black and white series I loved as a kid. My favourite episode is where he meets Little John on the plank bridge and they fight with quarterstaffs and Robin ends up in the water. But then they become friends and pledge to befriend the downtrodden and take food to the hungry, to give hope to the poor.

© Chris Cottom

Chris Cottom
Chris Cottom lives near Macclesfield, UK. He has work published or forthcoming in 100 Word Story, Eastern Iowa Review, Flash 500, Flash Frontier, Free Flash Fiction, Leon Literary Review, NFFD NZ, NFFD UK, Oxford Flash Fiction, Oyster River Pages, Roi Fainéant, Streetcake, The Lascaux Review, The Phare and others.

Follow Feed the Holy