The Man Who Lived in my Car

I had a friend in trouble. He moved into my car. I wrote about it. The picture in the avatar is the bar behind my old home.

The Man Who Lived in my Car

 

 

 

His name was Santos

Short, peaceful, Mexican

He was my new neighbor

In the eight unit beach bungalows

That sat on the corner of 22^nd and pacific.

He lived across from me.

 

Happy

Smiling

More mouse than man

He told me Diablo

Lived in bar

Behind my Beach Bungalow

 

He was a good amigo

Had a fine brown van

And dated Apollonia’s mother

Life was muy bien

For my new friend

 

After a little while

Santos returned to the bar

Behind our home

To drink with Diablo

 

In a matter of months

He lost everything

His home

Van

And Apollonia’s mother

 

The bar life will

Drain a man.

Leaves him soulless

Leaves him homeless

Leaves him lifeless

 

He came to me one night

One Cold Harbor night

And asked me if he could

Sleep in

my

car

 

A four door

1989 Toyota corolla

I purchased from a Chinese student

Who attended Cal state long beach

Two doors worked

Two windows didn’t

The heat never did

 

I said yes

 

Before I left for work each morning

To baby sit the urban youth

I woke my sleepless, homeless friend

He lived in my car for six months

This was our routine

In a few weeks our routine would change

 

I later found plastic packets with a white dusty residue

I ignored them

I did not

I could not

 

 

My car became his temporary casa.

Driver side: bedroom

Passenger side: living room

Back seat: Kitchen, den, and foyer

 

During the morning when I woke him

He would jump out of the car

He would grab his green duffle bag

And hobble off

To the streets of San Pedro

 

My landlord was Roy

A self made Millionaire, who lived in Bixby Knolls but was from Allentown, PA

Roy owned a recycling plant

Roy owned a plane

 

Roy found out Santo was living

 In

My

 Car

 

He told me he had to go

He had caught him shitting in the alley

At that moment I thought Roy

Needed another hobby.

 

Roy said it was illegal to have

Homeless Mexican men

Who drank with Diablo

And dated Apollonia’s mother

In

My

Car

 

That night I saw Santos

He invited two other people

 Into

 My

 Car

 

His home

They were addicts

Drug abusers.

I told Santos his lease was up

He and the addicts disappeared

Into the alley

Behind the bar

Were the devil drank

 

A month later I told Roy I had to go

I packed the housecar and drove to Carson

 

A little while later

Roy’s plane hit a Mountain in Alaska

 

I guess God don’t like ugly

Even if he owned a plane.

 

 

Author's Note

please, comments, conversation, edits, love hates. I must say I love the comments some of you are very intelligent thinkers.

Reviews

[Coyote Poetry]

Good ending for Roy. I like the story. I like the description of the life of Santos. A lot of good people can fall down. Good to have someone give a little kindness. I drank with the Devil a few times on the beach in Santa Cruz. Thank you for the excellent story.
Coyote

[Droll Prole]

Tolerant and non-judgemental of your friend, understanding of how things can go downhill for someone, you had mercy even though he was taking drugs in your car. I like the small details like who you brought the car from, the green duffel bag, a vivid portrait. I enjoyed reading your simple tale of ordinary life and bad karma. You got a little judgemental at the end but then nobody likes an a*****e right? haha

[Branch Isole]

This clash of characters, colliding over a car depicts so well different human nature layers and levels. Good read.

[Dayran]

Your empathy for Santos and his condition is curious. You watch like a spectator the way his life unfolds and perhaps in some way identify with his struggle. You have the outsider's view of the good and bad of life and appear to take note of nature's view of the same. A poem that we review to view ourselves.

[Jeremy Baker]

You capture the essence of greed and indifference perfectly here. The inability to empathise seems to grow commensurately with one's level of wealth. If this is a true story I applaud yopu, and not just for your poetic skill and craftmanship. The structure of this narrative, its detached wonderment at life's absurdity, is compelling and this reader could not stop with only one read. Excellent writing.

[LiberScriptus]

I think you have a very interesting and compelling story here, and very tragic as well. I love that you chose to put it in the format of a free form poem instead of prose. It gives you the option to emphasize certain points by using line breaks and stanza breaks without having to tie yourself down with the fuss of grammar and sentence structure. For instance, separating the phrase "in my car" into three different lines allows it to stand out and draws attention to how bizarre the situation is.

The only criticism I have is the last stanza, which suddenly seems very judgmental. The rest of the poem has an observant, ballad-like feel, and the last bit, "I guess God don't like ugly/ Even if he owned a plane" seems to take on a different attitude altogether.

[EMF]

Absolutely stunning. Such a complex tale, told by a master story teller. It explores so many issues from substance abuse to charitable natures. Such complexity, but handled so well, and with such word play to leave me stunned. A wonderful pice. I hope you are justly proud.

[Sudhanshu]

This is a nice story told in prose poem format.The dysfunctional lives of people like Santos in the harsh times of today under global recession is a theme of universal import.I think, why put your own judgement on who should die? After all, he was not that bad because he ashed Santos to leave. That's the prerogative all landlords have, and they can't be judged cruel on that account( In fact i think all the wicked men and dictators of the world have generally lived long, whereas many of the best human-beings have died in their youth.I think your end judgement is out of sync with the character portrayal of Roy, it's an impetuous emotional outburst on your part.

[Robbie~xoxo~]

This is a very sad story. One that warns of bad decisions. I feel terrible for the main character- "Santos" in this poem. Very original write! Well done!

[Chris]

In todays time Santos is the wrong stereotype... way, way, way too many 99'ers out there that the repo dude even got their cars by now... or the tags expired and the parking meter patrol booted and towed em. People at the bottom have their own etiquette.

Good story... satisfying end.

Chris

[Canicus]

tthis was very interesting. I like it, good job.