Natives Are Restless

By Richard L. Spurgeon

 

A person sleeping on the streets

for a few nights

to find out what it’s like

to be homeless

would not know anymore

about homelessness

than a homeless person

sleeping for a few nights

in Donald Trump’s office

would know about acquiring

a 100 million dollar

line of credit.

 

That’s what makes a tourist…

a tourist

and a native…

a native.

 

Written in 1987

 

This is just the first of many of Spurgeon’s poems that Two Way Street plans to publish.  To accentuate the timelessness of Spurgeon’s poetry, we hope to use Two Way Street as a platform to:

 

 

  • Share Spurgeon’s institutional knowledge and wisdom which began developing back during the rise of Albuquerque Street News (1990-1999)
  • Honor poets and homeless advocates who have dedicated countless hours to elevating marginalized voices in Albuquerque, and other communities around the country
  • Connect Albuquerque’s local poetry and homeless advocate communities to bolster both their efforts

 

 

It has been almost 2 years since I first caught wind of the street paper movement while studying City Planning at the University of New Mexico. After attending the 2015 International Network of Street Paper Summit in Seattle, I knew that Albuquerque’s original street paper launched in 1990 had to be revived.

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