The Plastic Cart

This could be my last post here for a while because I plan to focus my time and attention over the next few months much more on my new writing project - The Life and Times of Richard Musto.  Together with my collaborator Michel Delsol, we have started a new blog at richardmusto.blogspot.com where we intend to jointly keep track of our progress.

Richard is a homeless man I met about a year ago when he began living on 28th street near my house.  He made his living selling flowers from a ramshackle home he built for himself on the sidewalk in front of an empty lot.  Michel and I have been spending a lot of time with Richard over this past year and we are deeply engaged in trying to create a photo and poetic account of his life.  Our goal is to complete a book length work by the end of this year.

Richard spent the winter and spring in Atlantic City.  He came back to NYC earlier this week and briefly set up house and shop again on 28th street.  It was the first time in more than 6 months that he was back in business in the neighborhood and there were many folks who seemed genuinely pleased to see him.

I had a chance to make the rounds with him, as he hauled  his plastic cart, collecting half-dead flowers from the wholesalers along the block.  Here's a picture I took and a few stanzas I wrote about it last night, which may be something I can use in part of the book.



The Plastic Cart

One of the key items

In Richard’s arsenal

In the war for survival

Along the midtown front

Is a plastic shopping cart

On long term loan from

CVS or Duane Reade

It’s his suitcase on wheels

And primary means

For transporting goods

Up and down the block

Gathering the flowers

Three days past bloom

After they’ve been tossed out

By the wholesalers and

Picked over by other

First tier venders

Along his collection route

And sometimes it’s

A traveling sink

For hauling water

From a nearby deli

In a large bucket

It sloshes onto the sidewalk

As he navigates through

The crowds thronging 

The midtown streets

These are pretty crappy pictures I took on my blackberry but I asked Michel to try and get some better shots of the same scene.

So once again, I expect posting here to be very sporadic for the next few months.  But please feel free to track the progress of my work with Michel and Richard at richardmusto.blogspot.com.